DELAYED PROBE OF CORRUPTION CASES CAUSE OF ROT IN MANAGING FUNDS

By KETRA KALUNGA

THE slow pace at which enforcement agencies are pursuing cases cited in the Auditor General’s report, has contributed to a rise in the abuse of public funds Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD) ZCSD Executive Director Leah Mitaba has said.

It was worrying, she said, that prosecutions took long giving an impression that nothing was being done to bring culprits to book. 

Ms. Mitaba  was concerned that Zambians  continued to see the rot in the management of public funds meant to alleviate the levels of poverty in the country.

“The AG office is doing its work and bringing out some of the rot that is happening in the government offices, sadly we still see slow action on the part especially of the law enforcement agencies, corruption cases are not moving at the pace that they should,” she said.

She said the revelations in the report on the account of parastatal bodies for the financial year ended, December 31, 2020, is a vindication on the part of people responsible to provide checks and balances such as civil society organisations (CSOs).

Ms. Mitaba said that the findings in the AG report are speaking to the important role that CSOs play in the fight against corruption.

“We are vindicated as CSOs because when we take the government to account on certain issues, when we fight some of the things that are happening that are not right, we are misunderstood,” she said.

Ms. Mitaba urged the government through the law enforcement agencies to quickly move in and close in on the people mentioned in the AG’s report if the country is to win the fight against graft.