By ALVIN CHIINGA
THE Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has commended President Sata for tightening his leash on corrupt leaders and by making high-level dismissals of Government leaders linked to the vice.
Speaking during an end-of-year briefing, ACC spokesperson Timothy Moono also advised the Electoral Commission of Zambia and other relevant authorities to ensure parliamentary candidates whose polls were nullified due to corruption remain outside parliament for at least five years in order to ‘teach others a lesson’ that graft does not pay.
The ACC has also commended President Sata for firing two deputy ministers who were allegedly involved in corruption last year.
Mr Moono said the removal from office of Ministry of Labour deputy minister Ronald Chitotela and his counterpart at the Ministry of Agriculture Rodgers Mwewa for alleged corruption is testimony that Government does not support graft.
“This determination can be witnessed through the action by President Sata’s removal of Mr Ronald Chitotela and Mr Rodgers Mwewa for Labour and Agriculture [respectively] due to alleged involvement in corruption in the utilisation of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) revealed in the 2011 Auditor General’s report,” Mr Moono said at the ACC end-of-year media briefing yesterday.
Mr Moono said investigations on the two deputy ministers are progressing steadily and are expected to be concluded soon.
The two are accused of misapplying CDF.
He said that the ACC has also dealt with several other high-profile cases which include those of former Copperbelt Commissioner of Police Ms Mary Tembo; former Zambia Railways Limited chief executive officer Professor Clive Chirwa; and Mongu Town Clerk Mr Enoch Kandingwa.
Mr Moono said that the ACC is also continuing with the trial of Henry Kapoko, a former human resources manager at the Ministry of Health, and nine others.
He said that the conviction of former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport Steven Masumba is another success recorded by the ACC.
Mr Moono said last year, the ACC received 1,987 reports of corruption compared to 2,337 reports in 2012, a reduction of 350.
He attributed this to increased awareness by members of the public on what constitutes corruption as a result of sensitisation programmes by the ACC.
Mr Moono said that generally, there has been an improvement on reporting trends from members of the public suggesting that education campaigns are bearing fruit.
He said that the public is now more aware of the types of complaints that fall within the mandate of the commission.
Mr Moona also said that the ACC does not wait for directives from President Sata on whom to investigate but rather just notifies him when they are investigating any of his ministers.
426 total views, 369 views today