Deepening corruption

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:39:23 +0000

THE decision to transfer four registry clerks and terminate contracts for interns following the exposure of the deepening corruption scandal in the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources confirms that illegality is rife.

We are reliably informed the subordinates were transferred from the registry department, the hub of corruption in land administration, purely on suspicion that they are the ones leaking information to us.

This latest development at the ministry is a clear case of some unscrupulous and unpatriotic senior Government officials abusing their offices and positions to perpetuate corruption.

In fact, this also shows that the corruption cartel in the ministry has taken the law into their own hands and is now creating a cocoon to avoid possible prosecution. Are whistle-blowers supposed to be victims of vindictiveness?

Instead, we think it is the senior Government officials in the Ministry of Lands who should be rooted out of the system. As long as they masquerade as officers doing their job, when they are nothing but a bunch of thieves, the ministry will continue to be used as a tool of oppression against the ordinary Zambians.

Is transferring the four registry clerks a solution to the corruption engulfing the Ministry of Lands? Are the registry clerks and interns the only ones involved in grand corruption?

Intimidating junior civil servants for merely performing their civic duty is indicative that the corruption scam surrounding the eight plots in Roma township involves senior civil servants who have been abusing their positions for a long time.

So far, our search indicates that the eight people who were dispossessed of the plots actually followed the right procedure by applying for them through Lusaka City Council and did all the preliminaries to ensure that the Ministry of Lands would not have a problem dealing with the matter.

This is evidenced by a letter signed by the then commissioner of lands Barnaby Mulenga in 2012 which allocated the plots to the eight individuals but title deeds were later issued at supersonic speed in 2015 after he left the ministry to different individuals who did not even apply for the plots.

This was only possible because of the corruption of certain officers in the Ministry of Lands who profited from the deal by dispossessing the eight and selling the plots to the highest bidders even when they knew that the council had already numbered the plots and informed the original applicants.

It is certain that this despicable action was not only done by the registry clerks but also some senior Government officials were part of this corruption cartel that has emerged in the Ministry of Lands.

The mere fact that the Ministry of Lands has arrived at the decision to transfer some staff and leave out others authenticates our revelations regarding the corruption scam.

And it is actually shocking that despite such overwhelming evidence the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has not effected arrests on individuals who were embroiled in the corruption syndicate at the Ministry of Lands. What more evidence does the ACC require to arrest and prosecute the corrupt elements tarnishing the Patriotic Front (PF) government?

The matter the ACC is handling was ably investigated by the police and came to the conclusion that the controversial plots belonged to the eight people who had proof of the necessary documentation while the new owners who brazenly reported the matter to the police had none.

We urge the ACC to move in swiftly and help bring sanity to the Ministry of Lands. Failure to take decisive action is abetting corruption which they are expected to get rid of.