MINISTER BACKS LIFESTYLE AUDIT
By ADRIAN MWANZA
A LIFESTYLE audit on ministers and other senior government officials should be implemented to put to rest insinuations that individuals holding public office were enriching themselves dubiously, Community Development Minister Doreen Mwamba has said.
Ms Mwamba said she supported the call from civil society organisations like Transparency International Zambia to introduce lifestyle audits.
She said the problem was that some people speculated that most ministers used to loot public resources by virtue of the offices they held.
“For me, I support the introduction of lifestyle audits on ministers because we do not have anything to hide and this should be a normal procedure,” she said.
Ms Mwamba said she was the Chief Executive Officer of Lonerock Zambia and was comfortable to let people audit her lifestyle.
She said the audit needed to be conducted now when they were still new in office so that Zambians can have the opportunity to see how transparent the office bearers were.
Ms Mwamba said that it should not be unusual if people saw her driving a VX because they would have full knowledge of her capabilities and what she could afford.
“The audits will keep us ministers in check because we are going to know that the public have full knowledge of our wealth and financial standing,” she said.
Ms Mwamba said this was not supposed to target anyone but to ensure that transparency was enhanced in the public service.
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