Mining firms implored to support communities
Written by Millennium on August 2, 2019
GLORIA KANGWA writes
THE ministry of Mines has not put a percentage of the payments to be made to local authorities by mining companies, says Permanent Secretary Paul Chanda.
Mr Chanda said while it was mandatory that the mining companies gave back to the community it operated from though the municipality, no percentage has been specified.
He said this in a speech read for him by the ministry’s director of planning Bernadette Cheya during the launch of the 9th 2016 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reconciliation report held in North-Western Province at Solwezi lodge.
“Zambia has now produced 9 EITI reports, the information is very key and important for communities and local authorities. The expenditure on social cooperation social responsibility which is important is included too,
“These payments to councils and corporate social responsibilities are particularly important because they enable communities to appreciate how much the mining companies are contributing to their wellbeing”, he said.
Mr Chanda said the 7th National Development Plan by government underscored the importance it attached to the mining sector so that the nation benefitted from its natural resources through prudent management.
“This is why as government, I am very happy with the work that the EITI are doing in ensuring that proceeds from the sector are accounted for in a transparent manner,” he said.
And provincial permanent secretary Willies Mangimela said in a speech read form him by his deputy Douglas Ngimbu, said that it was commendable that EITI was putting out the reports in the public domain so that monies being made by mining companies in Zambia were properly accounted for.
Mr Mangimela said the local authorities getting money from the mining companies gave to the communities through the services they provided
He urged EITI to keep up with its goo work but requested the reports to be released on time.
