Govt urged to fix broken social schemes

CTPD Executive Director Isaac Mwaipopo

The Centre for Trade Policy and Development has urged government to work on fixing the broken existing social schemes before jumping on to the National Health Insurance Scheme.

CTPD executive director Isaac Mwaipopo says country has a number of already existing social schemes that have lamentably failed to meet the expectations of the Zambian citizens due to poor and non-transparent management systems.

He says it therefore expected that government should first prioritize working on fixing these.

Mr Mwaipopo has cited the National Pension Scheme Authority which was established in the year 2000 as one example of a scheme that has not lived to people’s expectations as a number of people subscribed to the scheme still struggle to access benefits.

He notes that the biggest problem citizens have with the current system has been its failure to deliver services to the expectations of the people and the failure to promote and defend public interest, especially in the utilization of public resources.

Mr Mwaipopo states that the recent Auditor General’s report brought out shocking revelations on abuse of public funds and the expectations from the citizens was that Government was going to act in the best interest of the public, but that to the shock of everyone, the report has been taken like a mere academic thesis drafted for merely passing annual exams.