The Zambia Environmental Management Agency – ZEMA has been accused of delaying and eventually frustrating investment and development projects due to its management team that wants to implement first world regulation in a third world country.
According to a source who has had a terrible experience with the Green Economy Ministry Agency, ZEMA is using its environmental protection regulations for extracting bribes as the process they use looks opaque and undefined, leading to creation of avenues for possible corruption to make project approval happen in time.
A source who asked the Zambian Business Times – ZBT to withhold their identity for fear that their business projects may be jeopardized stated that ZEMA is using regulations that have been cut and paste from first world countries, forgetting that Zambia needs to catch up on development.
The ZEMA management team is always taking its sweet time to review and conclude Environmental Impact Assessments – EIA’s as if they are not aware that there are costs involved by developers as well as financing costs in the waiting period.
And efforts by ZBT to confirm the allegations with ZEMA has also shown that the agency management is always giving excuses to postpone media engagements which makes it difficult to get responses. ZEMA unfortunately has to review and approve major projects which the country needs to grow the economy and create jobs.
President Hakainde Hichilema at his press briefing also called out ZEMA to streamline their operations and improve transparency, as the agency has been sighted by key industry players and investors as an undefined stumbling block to both local and foreign investors due to unnecessary delays and lack of transparency in their approval process.
Efforts by ZBT to meet and get ZEMA management responses as well as measures that are to be put in place to introduce practical delivery and service charters are still underway by time of press.