• Citizens will have more confidence in the Law Enforcement Agencies if they can be having tangible recoveries of public resources.
• The resources are meant to grow the economy.
• The FIC has shown consistency regardless of which government is in power.

An Economist has called on Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to give a progress report on the cases that have been sent to them by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to investigate.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Emmanuel Zulu said citizens will have more confidence in the Law Enforcement Agencies if they can be having tangible recoveries of public resources.
Mr. Zulu stated that resources being mismanaged are meant to grow the economy, to benefit the social sector, provide medicines in the hospitals, schools and desks among other things.
“We would call on the law enforcement agencies to also give a progress report on what has been done regarding the cases that have been sent to them by the FIC to investigate. Citizens will have more confidence in the law enforcement agencies if we can be having tangible recoveries of resources.”
“If we allow these transactions to go on and deprive the treasury of these resources, Zambia will have challenges in achieving the much needed development and economic growth,” Mr. Zulu stated.
He added that the country is currently on its knees in terms of begging for debt relief mostly because of misuse of public resources and some of the illicit transactions that are not being pursued.
“The FIC has shown us consistency regardless of which government is in power, they have been able to publish their reports and it remains on the law enforcement agencies to take action.”
“This will help to build confidence in the public as we are trying to fight corruption in the country and the President has declared zero tolerance to corruption. So we must see these actions being supported even by the government itself,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Zulu said having a value of K6.1 billion suspicious transactions reported by the FIC is of grave concern as it shows that illicit financial flows are still talking centre stage.
“It is important to note that the FIC holds a very important position in the running of government and it helps also in the management of resources, by ensuring that resources are not taken away from the Zambians through illegal means.”
“What we are seeing from the report is that there is still an increase in the number of cases that are bordering on illicit financial flows. This is worrying because at this time we expected a reduction,” he said.
Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) analyzed 155 suspicious transactions in 2022 worth K6.1 billion, out of which 129 cases worth K5.8 billion were disseminated to law enforcement agencies, representing a 38.92 percent increase from 2021.