An appraisal of the contribution of public interest disclosures in the attainment of governance in Zambia
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Date
2013-02-21
Authors
Kafwimbi, Florence
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Abstract
This paper is focused on understanding the contribution of public interest disclosures in the attainment good governance and enforcement of the rule of law in Zambia. Good governance entails that public life should conducted within institutions that are fair, judicious, transparent, accountable, participatory, responsive, well-managed, and efficient, while Public interest disclosure laws or whistle blower protection laws are essentially about protecting persons who disclose information about actions or inactions which are contrary to public interest be it in the private or public sectors. This research employed the legal qualitative approach.To this end, the research was mainly be a desk research comprising of consultation from statutes, International instruments, articles, Journals, textbooks, periodicals, paper presentations, newspapers articles, as well as research via internet generated presentations on the subject matter. The research also included interviews with persons endowed with knowledge in area of research.
This research recognised and evaluated the contribution whistle blowing and good governance to the attainment of sustainable development, it scrutinised the rational behind whistleblower legislation, the precipitating factors behind such pieces of legislation, the common objectives of whistle blower legislation as well as the types of whistleblower legislation. The concept of good governance its principles as well as how these principles of good governance and whistle blowing are interconnected is was analysed. This paper also evaluated the role of whistleblowing good governance and freedom of information laws in the protection and preservation of human rights. The paper appreciates the role whistleblowing, good governance and freedom of information laws in fostering the right to development, helping the public make informed decisions as regards how they exercise their democratic rights, enabling the public engage in informed dialog with their political and civic leaders and consequently helping them to form and express intelligent opinions on matters of governance thus ensuring civic leaders adhere to the rule of law. After considering the foregoing, this paper concludes that the role that public interest disclosures in fostering better accountability transparency and public integrity in both the public and private sectors cannot be overemphasised.
The paper recommends that the current whistleblower Act needs to be realigned in order for it to achieve the intended purpose of providing a mechanism through which conduct adverse to the public interest in both the private and public sectors may be safely disclosed. It is thus recommended that the terms substantial and or serious be defined in the act to reduce the room of the wide discretionary powers granted to- investigative wings, that the application of the Act be broadened to cover all employees including independent contractors, the Act must include in its ambit of entities that can receive disclosures to include the media, civil society and any investigative wings of government. Furthermore it has been recommended that a pecuniary reward be introduced for whistleblowers that enable the government recover or save any resources that would have been lost as a result of maladministration and wastage. It has also been recommended that government policies should also be subjects of the Act and that the enactment of freedom of information laws must be expedited because of the irrefutable relationship between the two areas of law.
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Keywords
Public interest--law and legislation--Zambia , Whistle blowing , Public interest law