By NATION REPORTER
Brenar Changala has asserted that the fight against corruption under the UPND government was lost the day gazette notice number 1123 was signed to move the law enforcement agencies, including the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to the Office of the President at State House.
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And Mr Changala, the civil rights and political activist has warned government Ministers who have refused to declare their assets that they risk losing their properties to the State in the same manner the new dawn government is seizing properties of former leaders.
Mr Changala says there is a danger that President Hakainde Hichilema could forfeit his Community to the State after leaving the presidency if the head of State is going to remain adamant about declaring his assets.
He said he had hoped that under the UPND, oversight institutions such as the ACC, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and others would be independent of the executive but that his hopes had been shuttered by the manner the fight against corruption was being waged.
Mr Changala said there was need to formulate legislation that compel the board of the ACC to report to Parliament and have a tenure of office for all the oversight institutions.
He said the reason the reforms needed to take place was because corruption and abuse of office was domiciled in the Executive and that there was no way the Director-General and the board of the ACC could be reporting to the President.
Mr Changala, featuring on COSTA on Diamond TV said the fight against corruption under the UPND administration to some extent was selective.
He said the dramatic arrest of senior civil servants at the Ministry of Finance and National Planning for allegedly getting illegal allowances swapped away the Auditor General, Dr Dickson Sichembe leaving the permanent secretary who is the controlling of who authorised the payment.
Mr Changala said Dr Sichembe was tormented from all angles until he resigned, a thing that the executive wanted.
Mr Changala has urged the Ministry of Finance officials who were facing corruption allegations not to heed to ACC’s call for them to pay so that the cases may drop.
“For if they pay back, it would only mean that they were guilty of the allegations. ACC must take the cases to court so that those people could be cleared after being embarrassed publicly,” Mr Changala said.
“In as much as there is political will to fight corruption under the current government, we still don’t know what is happening under the carpet, the ACC itself is aware of and they don’t want to arrest anybody,” Mr Changala said. Mr Changala said there was too much corruption at the Ministry of Agriculture such that they refused to be audited.
He said this when he featured on COSTA on Diamond TV.
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