The Pension Trust Fund saga: A clarion call to sound leadership

By Titani Chalira*

Sound leadership means that legal rules, ethical rules and moral rules are in sync. Beyond following the law, sound leadership sees to it that a leader adheres to a set of ethical standards and also has a personal moral compass.

The Pension Trust Fund saga involving the purchase of Amaryllis hotel reveals the lack of sound leadership. The explanations of the people who appeared before the public accounts committee of parliament show that legal rules were flouted, that there was little adherence to ethical standards/rules and that there was lack of regard to personal moral rules. The conduct of the people involved in the pension trust saga show that the processes that led to the deal were a veneer of legality. Scratching a little deeper, it is clear that some people wanted to benefit illegally.

The worrisome thing to note is that the people involved in the pension trust fund belong to different professional bodies. Among them, there are lawyers, accountants, teachers, economists and public management professionals. It is expected of them to adhere to ethical codes of conduct in their respective professions. As professionals, their broader goal is to promote integrity, respect, fairness, accountability, honesty, transparency, fairness and compliance.

As professionals involved in the purchase of the hotel, they did not comply with the law in executing documents. One would be tempted to think that it was because no one was watching them and this was failure to act with integrity. Professionals are supposed to respect each other and the professionals involved in the pension trust fund saga showed lack of respect to each other because they failed to work as a team.

The professionals failed to conduct proper due diligence for an investment of that magnitude and that showed lack of fairness to the beneficiaries of the trust. Furthermore, the responses of the professionals when they appeared before the public accounts committee showed that they lacked accountability, because they kept shifting the blame on others.

There was dishonesty in many of the stakeholders that testified before the public accounts committee. The common thread was that they were shifty and conveniently used formalities to conceal the lies. The fact that the sale agreement was executed without the knowledge of other trustees was a mark of dishonesty considering that it was presented as if the decision was collective. The revelations of the hearing showed that the process leading to the sale was not done in a transparent manner.

Apart from following the law and ethical standards in their respective professions; the professionals involved in the pension trust fund saga were expected to be guided by their own personal moral standards. Each of them needed to have a strong conscience to guide their decision-making process.

Upbringing, culture and religion are some of the key elements that help people to form a strong conscience which is foundational to personal moral standards. In our society, our upbringing generally teaches us to empathise with people who are less privileged. The owners of the pension fund money are largely people who are less privileged and it should have guided the stakeholders involved to empathise and carefully consider proceeding with the deal or not.

In our culture, the wisdom of the people is shared through proverbs. For example, on unity of purpose or collective responsibility and due diligence, there are proverbs which are instructive. Mutu umodzi susenza denga (one cannot carry the roof of a house alone. In the villages the thatched roof is made separately and they carry it and put it on top of the house.

The proverb means that there is strength in unity), kunyamula mpanda owoola mkuchulukana manja (to carry a fence that is rotten needs more hands and this also means that there is strength in unity) and safunsa anadya phula (a person who does not ask ends up in trouble) are some of the proverbs. The stakeholders were expected to act collectively and act with due diligence by asking all the important questions before making a decision to execute the sale agreement. This was supposed to be done to avoid the costly mistake of investing money belonging to the less privileged and end up losing it.

Some of the professionals who took part in the pension fund trust saga belong to different religions. It is expected that various religions teach people certain values that are good in society. Honesty and integrity are some of the known values which many of the religions share. Believers are encouraged to practice them in their daily life.

However, from the outset, one could get a sense of dishonesty in the manner the pension trust fund hotel purchase deal was conducted. There were times that some stakeholders met and executed documents without the knowledge of their colleagues. Acting with integrity means doing the right things even when no one is there checking what you are doing. The revelations of the stakeholders showed that they were proceeding to do wrong things because no one was watching. There was no time to feel remorse.

Bone of contention: Amaryllis Hotel (Photo Credit: Internet)

The manner in which the pension trust fund saga unraveled shows that there is an acquisitive or materialistic culture that has affected our society in the way we operate. The rush to be seen as the big guy or someone who has made it makes a lot of people to define their personality solely on the basis of the things they have. In turn, it is hard in a society that is predominantly materialistic to have people getting moved with inequalities and serve in the right manner.

It is also hard to stand up to people who offer material stuff to get their way in. In the pension trust fund saga, there was influence from all corners and various stakeholders at different stages failed to stand up to this influence. It is the failure to align legal rules, ethical rules and moral rules that led to the decision to proceed with the purchase of the hotel and risk squandering money belonging to civil servants. The civil servants deserve better considering that they sweated it out for the major part of their life in serving the country.

After all is said and done, it is the alignment of legal rules, ethical rules and moral rules that constitutes sound leadership. The pension trust fund saga should go beyond holding the stakeholders to account. It should help us to embrace sound leadership. There is need to start reflecting on the type of leaders we should be entrusting with positions such as those of the people involved in the pension trust fund saga. It is always important to bear in mind that everything rises and falls on leadership.

For so long, the primary criteria for appointing people to positions of leadership has revolved around their qualifications and the grades that appear on the certifications. This is an important threshold to makes sure that there are standards and right people are picked. However, there are certain values and attitudes that cannot be noticed during interviews.

This calls for more due diligence in the vetting process before people become leaders.

It must be clear that people with a known trail of being community builders and who exhibit good ethical and moral values are chosen to be leaders. It is dangerous to argue that the personal life of people who seek leadership positions does not matter so long as they have qualifications. The failure to execute their duties as expected is influenced by their personal life. People who have an uncontrolled acquisitive tendency and have a conceptualisation of human beings as exclusively material can easily abuse resources meant for the very same people they are supposed to serve.

Leadership is not only about the position one holds. We are all leaders at every level and we must be able to influence the direction of things in a manner that promotes the public good. So, as much as we have to put people who espouse sound leadership values in positions of power, it is important to cultivate the same values. We should look at legal rules as safeguards and the lighthouse that guide our activities. The ethical rules should be regarded as the guardrails of good conduct in everything we do and at any level. Going beyond the legal rules and the ethical rules, we must have moral rules that should check our personal foibles which stand in the way of our work.

To be able to achieve this kind of alignment, people should be educated in such a way that they are able to cultivate the right values and attitudes. The education should make them to behave well and serve the common good. The self-serving tendencies should be rooted out in the people through education. The legal rules, ethical rules and moral rules should not be looked at as merely decorative. They are interrelated and if they are applied well; the challenges such as corruption and questionable conduct as revealed in the amaryllis hotel purchase deal may be dealt with

*Chalira is a regular contributor to The Lamp magazine.