Abusing public resources doesn't pay - TIZ

Abusing public resources doesn't pay - TIZ
By Moses Kuwema and Agness Changala
Sun 18 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT

TRANSPARENCY International Zambia executive director Goodwell Lungu says government leaders should avoid abusing public resources because it does not pay.

Commenting on the Lusaka High Court's decision to uphold the four year jail sentence slapped on former Zambia Army commander Lt Gen Geojago Musengule and former Base Chemicals chief executive officer Amon Sibande's seven-year sentence by the magistrates' court in 2009, Lungu said the High Court's decision was the rightful verdict.

"That is a very rightful sentence to have been administered by the High Court and we want to appeal to all those leaders, former and current leaders facing similar situations, to understand that society and public resources need to be protected and if somebody decides on their own accord to contravene laws against public interest, that will be the end result," he said.

Lungu said there was a tendency by those who did wrong things in the past to claim they were being persecuted when the law visits them.

He said the courts of law as well as the legal system were put in place to implement correctional measures.

"Once these correctional measures are put in place and adhered to, then it will be able to send a deterrent message out there especially for our colleagues who are currently serving in the military that abusing public resources does not pay and it can end up leading somebody into jail," he said.

Lungu said much as TIZ and other stakeholders do not take pride in seeing people going to jail, those who break the law deserve nothing but jail.

Delivering the six-hour long judgment on Friday, judge Charles Kajimanga, sitting with judges Florence Lengalenga and Elita Mwikisa, upheld the convictions of Lt Gen Musengule and Sibande after all the 31 grounds of appeal were dismissed on the basis that they lacked merit.

And Anti-Corruption Commission director general Roswin Wandi says the conviction of Lt Gen Musengule shows that the evidence to prove allegations was there.

In an interview, Wandi said corruption fighters were vindicated when those who were alleged to have engaged in corrupt activities were convicted.

"For us it means that cases of corruption, where evidence is available, lead to a conviction and then it vindicates us the corruption fighters because it means that what we have alleged before has come to pass and the person is convicted," she said.

Wandi welcomed the High Court's decision to uphold Lt Gen Musengule and Sibande's jail sentences, saying the move was in accordance with the due process of the law which her institution had accepted.