REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT ASSURANCES FOR THE FIRST SESSION OF THE TENTH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY APPOINTED ON 8TH NOVEMBER, 2006 Consisting of: Mr R Muntanga, MP (Chairperson); Mr S Katuka, MP; Mr J B Chongo, MP; Mr S Chitonge, MP; Ms E M Imbwae, MP; Mr R S Mwapela, MP; Mr L P M’sichili and Mr V M Mooya, MP. THE HONOURABLE MR SPEAKER NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LUSAKA Sir Your Committee have the honour to present their Report for the First Session of the Tenth National Assembly. FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 2. Under the Standing Orders of the House, your Committee are mandated to scrutinise all assurances and undertakings made by Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers on the floor of the House with the objective of ensuring that these are implemented. As your Committee is a General Purposes Committee, their mandate is not confined to any specific ministry as the issues that they consider are applicable to all ministries depending on situations and the issues involved. PROCEDURE OF THE COMMITTEE 3. Your Committee examined all contributions made by Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers as recorded in the Daily Parliamentary Debates and extracted all statements which, in their view, amounted to assurances. These were then referred to the Government ministries concerned to find out the actions taken to implement the assurances. Upon receipt of submissions from the ministries and government departments on the outstanding assurances, your Committee then invited the respective Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executives to appear before them and give updates on the implementation of the assurances under their respective portfolios. MEETINGS OF THE COMMITTEE 4. Your Committee held twenty three meetings during the period under review. Your Committee’s Report deals with the consideration of outstanding and new assurances. TOURS OF THE COMMITTEE 5. In fulfillment of their programme of work, your Committee also undertook tours to insepct some projects which were reported to be on-going and which had been pending for long periods. 1 PART I CONSIDERATION OF ASSURANCES MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 02/88 - Floating Beacons on Luapula River and Lake Mweru On 28th January, 1988, the Right Honourable Prime Minister assured the House as follows: “Mr Speaker, what the Honourable Member for Nchelenge is raising is valid. We will look into the problem.” Your previous Committee were unhappy and disappointed with the same responses year after year and resolved to await a progress report on the matter. Further, the previous Committee (2006) observed that there was need to review the transfer of the assurance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Works and Supply and the Ministry of Lands, because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no role to play in the physical demarcation of the boundary, but had a bearing on international relations, and recommended that the assurance be transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministries of Works and Supply and Lands, respectively, and requested a progress report on the matter. It was reported in the Action Taken Report that the boundary between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) originated from the Treaty signed at Brussels on 12th May, 1894, between Great Britain and His Majesty King Leopold II of Belgium on behalf of Congo. The total distance of the boundary is approximately 2, 140km from the Angolan frontier to Lake Tanganyika. While the boundary from Angola frontier to Mukuku Bridge, Main Beacon No. XXVIII, was demarcated and physically defined by concrete pillars; the remainder of the stretch up to Lake Tanganyika, covering a distance of approximately 905km, was not marked on the ground. In recognition of the unmarked part of the border problem between Zambia and the Democratic Republic Congo, the former Presidents Kaunda and Mobutu held extensive consultations on the matter. Arising from those consultations, the two Presidents agreed to appoint a Special Joint Committee of Experts in 1982. They also agreed on the following terms of reference for the Committee: (a) to interpret the Treaty of 12th May, 1894 to the benefit of the two countries; (b) to study the course of the boundary in any area where it may be necessary and make proposals for the approval of the two Governments; and (c) to cause demarcation of the boundary, if need be, through construction of boundary beacons, which will be described in a protocol to be submitted to the two Governments for ratification. So far, terms of reference (a) and (b) have been fulfilled following sixteen meetings held between July, 1983 and February, 1989 by the Special Joint Committee of Experts. On 18th September, 1989, a Delimitation Treaty of the Boundary between the Republic of Zambia and the Republic of Congo from Lake Tanganyika to main Beacon No. XXVII, was signed to resolve the boundary dispute. This was later to be followed by the actual physical demarcation of the boundary to be described in a protocol in line with the term of reference (c). Unfortunately, the actual physical demarcation of the boundary had not been carried out, and the Special Joint Committee of Experts had not met since the eighteenth session of July, 1998. The following progress had been made on the implementation of the Decisions of the Joint Committee: (a) harmonization of the English and French Texts of the Draft Treaty; (b) harmonization of the Enlarged Extract of the Map Illustrating the Zambia/Congo Boundary; (c) finalisation of the Transparencies of the Map and the Enlarged Extract; (d) printing two English and two French Originals of the Final General Map; (e) printing and Bind appendices II and III into one Volume in Zambia; and (f) preparation of the Final Cartographic Documents. 2 Furthermore, seventy-seven books of Maps in French and 77 in English were produced. Demarcation of the Boundary under the Term of Reference (C) A corridor of aerial photography covering the Zambia/Congo border between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika was undertaken in 1991. The next phase was to put concrete beacons along the area that was photographed. However, this could not be accomplished under the normal bilateral arrangements due to the out-break of hostilities in the Congo since the last meeting in 1998. However, the Zambia Congo-DR Joint Technical Committee of Experts on the border demarcation met in Lusaka from 7th - 10th March, 2006 and resolved to do the following: - the joint survey team should meet to plan for the physical demarcation of the unmarked international boundary which has taken too long to be implemented mainly due to limited financial resources of the two countries; - to finalize a joint project proposal to be submitted by the two Governments to cooperating partners for funding and that the joint proposal would indicate the percentage to be contributed by the two Governments and the percentage to be contributed by the prospective cooperating partners; - that January, 2007, should be the commencement month for the project since both Governments did not provide for the exercise in their respective budgets; - special tailored training in Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) should be arranged for the twelve officers of the Joint Survey Field Team and that equipment for the exercise be procured by the two Governments; - procurement of sensitization materials that are necessary to notify people along the common border and that people along the border be sensitized so that they are made aware of the reasons for the survey works; and - that the project proposal document be submitted to the Joint Committee of Experts meeting for consideration. Observations and Recommendations In noting the submission, your Committee resolve to close the matter as the Surveyor General, through the Permanent Secretary, explained clearly that no country would lose land to the other. 24/97 - Construction of the Chembe Bridge and Tarring of the Pedicle Road On 18th February, 1997, the Honourable Minister made the following assurance on the floor of the House: “The tarring of the Pedicle Road (the shortest route to Luapula and Northern Provinces) and improvement of the treatment to Zambians who travel on that road to the two provinces, Northern and Luapula, will be looked into.” The previous Committee had observed that although the Governments had given an assurance in the House that the construction of the bridge was well on its way, it was still very far from being completed. They further observed that the Japanese entourage had expressed some reservation about constructing a bridge on behalf of Zambia in a foreign land. Your previous Committee recommended that the Congolese be brought on board for the negotiations relating to the Chembe bridge and with the putting up of the floating beacons, and resolved to await a progress report. It was reported in the Action Taken Report that the Governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Republic of Zambia (GRZ) had agreed to construct the Mokambo-Chembe road and the Bridge across the Luapula River at Chembe. It had been agreed that the Zambian Government would source funds for the projects. Part of the total project cost would be treated as a loan to the DRC, to be repaid later. However, the DRC's preference was for the projects to be financed under the Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) arrangements. 3 A consultant was engaged to carry out the feasibility study of the Bridge at a contract price of K5 75,168,375.00. The study concluded that the project was viable with an economic rate of return of 13 percent which was higher than the 12 percent official discount rate adopted in Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo for the development of infrastructure projects.