ActionAid Zambia says the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has shown commitment towards the fight against corruption following the arrest of Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development Ronald Chitotela with corruption for allegedly concealing proceeds of crime.
Action Aid Acting Country Director Jeston Lunda says the action by ACC shows that the institution is making efforts in the fight against corruption.
Mr. Lunda says the arrest of a top government official may send a strong signal in the fight against corruption.
Mr. Lunda has urged ACC to keep working hard and urgently act on all reported corruption cases.
He says there have been a lot of revelations of financial irregularities and corruption in the recent past.
“A case in point is the findings in the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Trends report of 2017, which made damning revelations of how suspected corruption represented 39% of the total number of reports received in 2017,” he said.
He says the rate is extremely alarming and that the value of transactions involved over K6.3 billion of the total value of cases analysed.
“Unfortunately, we have not heard much from ACC on progress made in dealing with these cases highlighted by the FIC in its 2017 report,” said Mr. Lunda.
He says ACC, as an investigative body, must proactively take interest in corruption cases brought out by other institutions and investigate them to the letter.
Mr. Lunda has therefore urged ACC to continue caring out investigations without any fear at all because that is their mandate.
He says his organisation has observed, through the FIC Trends reports, some ways in which procurement corruption is taking place which involves the collusion between Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) and vendors or suppliers.
Mr Lunda says the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct requires a Member to declare interest in relation to a government contract with a private firm, specifying the nature and extent of his or her interest.
He says findings in the FIC report shows that there is a violation of the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct in this regard.