Integrity committee will ensure accountability - ACC
Integrity committee will ensure accountability - ACCBy Nomusa Michelo
Thursday May 24, 2007 [04:00]
ANTI-Corruption Commission (ACC) chairperson Justice Valentine Chileshe has called on members of the public to lodge complaints of inefficiency and administrative malpractice to the newly established Integrity Committee.
Flagging off the dissemination of the ACC Integrity Committee & Code of Ethics at ACC offices yesterday, Justice Chileshe said this was crucial to ensure that the ACC was accountable to the public.
"I further call upon the ACC staff and the general public to make the integrity committee accountable to them by lodging complaints of inefficiency, and related administrative malpractices to it," he said.
"The media should be interested in the ACC integrity committee's, activities and in the activities of the other integrity committee's namely Zambia Police, Immigration Department, Ministry of Lands, Zambia Revenue Authority, Ndola City Council, Lusaka City Council and Public Service Pensions Fund because this is one sure way of ensuring that the integrity committee’s are accountable and the initiative works."
Justice Chileshe said the government through the ACC was in the process of developing a National Anti-Corruption Policy and Strategy.
He said a key element of the strategy was the need to prevent corruption and other malpractices in organisations by having individual organisations introducing Corruption Prevention Mechanisms therein.
He said extensive research by the ACC had shown that the use of Integrity Committees was an effective strategy of institutionalizing the prevention of corruption and other malpractices.
"The Concept of Integrity Committees is a revolutionary opportunity approved by the government to assist ourselves as Zambians improve governance and therefore, service delivery in our Public Institutions," he said.
Justice Chileshe explained that the need to institutionalise the prevention of corruption had come from the Zambian people.
He said on October 26, 2004, President Levy Mwanawasa launched the National Governance Baseline Survey (NGBS) report, which contained the findings of the views of the Zambians on corruption in the country.
"The results of this survey show that corruption is a serious problem in Zambia, especially at points where public officials interact with members of the public to provide public services to them," he said. "About 80 per cent of families and public officials in Zambia rated corruption in the public sector as a very serious problem, while 67 per cent of the managers rated it as the biggest problem in doing business in Zambia."
Justice Chileshe also thanked the Department For International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for their financial and technical support in the implementation of the just launched initiatives.
And ACC director general Nixon Banda said the Code of Ethics required members of staff of the ACC to put public interest before their own private interests.
Labels: ACC
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