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Govt officials in hurry to fraudulently acquire wealth, observes TIZ

Govt officials in hurry to fraudulently acquire wealth, observes TIZ
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Thursday, April 02, 2009 3:51:48 PM

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda’s regime has seen an increase in high profile government officials moving at "high speed" to acquire wealth fraudulently, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has observed.

And Auditor General of Zambia Anna Chifungula has encouraged people to take interest in the Auditor General's annual report because it reveals how taxpayers' money is spent by government.

Addressing the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) organised public discussion at Pamodzi Hotel on Tuesday evening under the theme 'Management of Public Resources and Accountability', TIZ executive director Goodwell Lungu said the civil society in the country was currently building its capacity to increase vigilance in view of the growing trend.

Lungu said the new mechanism being devised by the civil society could be seen in the number of "speed traps" that had recently been applied on some government officials.

Lungu said the civil society was also contemplating to engage in private prosecution of some public officials found ailing but that the move was being derailed by huge legal costs and to some extent the structure of the Public Prosecution Office.

He said TIZ predicted that the number of people to be convicted for plunder of national resources would rise going by the increasing cases of people allegedly trying to steal public resources.

"What we have seen in the last few months is that some of our friends in this current government have started moving at a high speed to acquire wealth and you have seen that recently, we have applied some speed traps to slow them down," Lungu said. "As civil society we keep on devising new mechanisms every now [and then] and that is depending on the situation even private prosecution.

"Private prosecution is very costly and that depends on the goodwill of the Director of Public Prosecutions because even a private prosecution, he has to approve of it and if he sits on the private prosecution, you can't go anywhere, and at the rate at which we are going, we see the queue to prison is even going to be even longer as the number of people going there is going to increase."

Lungu urged the public not to wait for politicians to provide political will to fight corruption, saying the people should force politicians to cultivate the political will.

"Zambian people should not wait for political will to come from politicians, but we are going to cultivate political will ourselves. We should be able to demonstrate to politicians that they should be able to lead by example and be able to see a lot of sense and appreciate our efforts as well," he said.

"What we are trying to do is simply to demonstrate that we are concerned with the public welfare and the way public funds are being utilised and so on. So once we have the same understanding with the politicians about public funds, then they will be bound to know that it is not just talking about fighting corruption but to do practical avenues that will demonstrate that they are committed towards the fight against corruption."

He also said politicians needed to demonstrate their commitment to fighting corruption by not shielding their close allies that were implicated in any suspected corrupt activity.

"Demonstration [by politicians] can only come in if they are even able to sacrifice their own bad habits, some of the people they feel are close allies to them but who might be found wanting," said Lungu.

"They should be able to demonstrate to the public that they are capable of doing that particular aspect and they are also capable of being held to account for their own action."

And Chifungula said the OAG always stood ready to assist private citizens to prosecute public officials who are suspected to have embezzeled public resources and were mentioned in the report.

Chifungula cited previous instances where some private individuals attempted to prosecute some erring officers who were suspected to have been involved in the Mbesuma Bridge in Northern Province where over US $3 million was estimated to have been spent without tangible results.

She also expressed frustration at the lack of action on public servants who are mentioned in the OAG reports.

"Previously when some private citizens, I think it came from Parliament decided to move a private citizens prosecution for government officials mentioned in the famous Mbesuma Bridge, my office gave them maximum cooperation," Chifungula said. "When we complete auditing of the public accounts, it is for every citizen and every citizen of this country has to take interest in the report because it shows how your money is being spent. My office will be ready to provide all documents needed to people who want to institute private citizens prosecution."

Labels: ANNA CHIFUNGULA, AUDITOR GENERAL, CORRUPTION, EAZ, GOODWELL LUNGU, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM