Maravi

Government's delay in ‘cleaning up' parastatals worries Fr Bwalya

Government's delay in ‘cleaning up' parastatals worries Fr Bwalya
By Moses Kuwema
Fri 23 Dec. 2011, 13:57 CAT

GET Involved Zambia executive director Fr Frank Bwalya says his organisation is worried about the PF government's delay in cleaning up graduates of the Rupiah Banda and Fredrick Chiluba ‘academy of kleptocracy' in parastatals and the civil service. In an interview, Fr Bwalya said the delay would jeopardise the fight against corruption.

"Already we know that at Road Development Agency evidence is being destroyed, now that is just a tip of the ice berg. We do believe that in many ministries and parastatals and other public service institutions, evidence is being destroyed because Rupiah Banda and his people could not steal so much money without the full cooperation of those who are in-charge of these institutions who benefited," Fr Bwalya said.

He said a number of people who were not prepared to be part of that criminality objected and some were fired from their positions.

Fr Bwalya said, however, many of them stayed in those positions because they cooperated and that this was at a fee for them.

"So these people are still in the civil service, they are still in public institutions and so on and we do know that they would destroy the evidence because it incriminates them as well. President Sata and his government should move fast, if they are short of men and women to prosecute these cases, the international community can assist so that there can even be more training for these officers. The scandals that went on under the MMD especially during the last three years of Rupiah Banda administration is enormous and everyday Zambians will be discovering something they never imagined could happen," he said.

Fr Bwalya said there was a lot of criminality that went on under the MMD during Banda's reign.

He said the MMD should either seek amnesty by coming out in the open and return the money that they had actually stolen and apologise to the Zambian people or wait to be prosecuted.

"If not they should be prepared to go to jail and for us as Get Involved Zambia, we will be very disappointed if these criminal characters don't go to jail because we would be sending a signal that you can do this and just go to court for a prolonged period but continue to enjoy your loot," Fr Bwalya said.

He also welcomed the appointment of Mutembo Nchito as Director of Public Prosecutions and that he was confident that this development would result in money that has been stolen finding its way back to the treasury.

Fr Bwalya urged Zambians to help law enforcement agencies with information so that all the stolen money could be recovered and used for its intended purpose of development.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FRANK BWALYA, PARASTATALS, PF

posted by MrK @ 5:04 PM