By NATION REPORTER
TRANSPARENCY International Zambia (TIZ) has challenged the investigative agencies to quickly move and thoroughly investigate the illicit financial transactions revealed in the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) annual report for the year 2022.
TIZ executive director, Maurice Nyambe said the 39 percent increase in suspicious financial transactions compared to 2021 was too significant to be ignored by the law enforcement agencies. The 2022 Financial Intelligence Centre report has revealed that about K6.1 billion worth of illicit financial transactions, recording a increase of almost 39 percent as compared to 2021.
Mr Nyambe has called on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and the Zambia Police to immediately begin to pursue the revealed financial scandals most of which the FIC said were being perpetrated by Prominent Influential Persons (PIP).
Mr Nyambe said it was worrying that the situation did not seem to be getting much better and the need to put a stop to these anomalies could not be overemphasized.
The FIC annual report for the year 2022 revealed that it had analysed 155 suspicious transactions worth K6.1 billion, out of which 129 cases worth K5.8 billion was disseminated to law enforcement agencies. Mr Nyambe urged the ACC, DEC and the Zambia Police to thoroughly investigate the issues that were raised.
“We will obviously analyse the report and give a more detailed position later, but suffice to say that the continued illicit financial transactions that get revealed in FIC reports is a source of very great concern,” Mr Nyambe said. The report has also revealed that the centre had frozen three bank accounts containing K31.1 million on suspicions of theft and money laundering. The report further revealed that involvement of prominent influential persons in financial crimes such as procurement corruption has continued in the year 2022. “The almost 39 percent increase mentioned in this report is too significant an increase to be treated with kid gloves, and we urge the law enforcement agencies such as the ACC, DEC and Zambia Police to move in and thoroughly investigate these issues. It is worrying that the situation does not seem to be getting much better and the need to put a stop to these anomalies cannot be overemphasised,” Mr Nyambe said.
