Salutations
Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) welcomes all of you to this Press Briefing, which
represents our commemoration of the African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Day, which falls today
the 11th of July 2022. The AU Anti-Corruption Day is part of the many interventions and initiatives
aimed at placing the spotlight on corruption, with a view to rooting out the vice, while strengthening
democratic principles, institutions, and the rule of law. The ultimate aim is to attain transparency
and accountability in the management of public affairs among AU member countries. This day
therefore provides another critical opportunity for African governments to introspect on the
efficacy of their efforts to fight corruption and promote good governance.
As TI-Z, we are excited to be joining other anti-corruption crusaders in Africa and beyond in
commemorating the sixth edition of this important day, whose theme this year is “Strategies and
Mechanisms for the Transparent Management of Covid-19 Funds”. We are hopeful that this
day will serve as a basis for all anti-corruption stakeholders to reflect and dialogue on the
strategies and mechanisms taken in the fight against corruption in general and the transparency
in the management of Covid-19 funds in particular. TI-Z therefore takes this opportunity to present
a brief assessment of the UPND administration’s fight against corruption nearly one year since
they took over power. We will also use the opportunity to present key recommendations for the
better management of public resources, including COVID-19 funds.
Ladies and gentlemen, TI-Z has concluded an evidence-based evaluation of the UPND
administration with respect to their governance and anti-corruption promises as reflected in their
manifesto. The UPND administration among other things promised the establishment of special
fast track Anti-Corruption Courts to clear the backlog of outstanding corruption cases and expedite
the conclusion of similar cases going forward; ensure that all unclassified public records are
readily available and open to the public for scrutiny; ensure self-reported annual declaration of
wealth of government officials; and establish lifestyle audits with civil servant and public officers,
having no sacred cows and fighting corruption of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
In line with their manifesto, UPND has demonstrated some political will in fighting corruption. We
have seen politicians and some former civil servants pursued, interrogated and in some cases
arrested.
There has been an improvement in civil liberties and the application of the rule of law following a
crackdown on political cadres and the lawlessness they represented. UPND has made critical
leadership changes in Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) such as at ACC and DEC by appointing
substantive leaders at those key institutions. It may have taken long for some appointments to be
made, but we are glad that it has finally happened. We however wish to remind the administration
that the Financial Intelligence Centre, a key institution in the fight against money laundering,
remains without a substantive Director General, and that needs to be corrected as soon as
possible.
The establishment of an internal division within the ACC to investigate the staff for any corrupt
practices is a welcome move, which we hope will help in the restoration of faith in the ACC by the
public. We acknowledge the token of slight increase in the ACC budgetary allocation – we hope
to see a much and significant allocation in subsequent budgets. We equally acknowledge the
much improved and more detailed 2021 Financial Intelligence Centre trends report, with
increased number of case studies and trends of cases previously reported on.
The establishment of the Financial and economic Division courts which is already bearing results
is a great boost to the fight against corruption and other financial crimes. We have been further
elated by President Hichilema’s announcement during his last press conference of the
establishment of the fast track anti-corruption court to deal with back log of corruption cases and
future cases.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me now turn to the areas needing improvements. Following the
popular mandate that they received in last year’s elections, the UPND is being held to a greater
standard of accountability by the general citizenry, and unfortunately, this is a standard that the
UPND administration is struggling to live up to. This is demonstrated in the limited transparency
and responsiveness that the administration has shown towards matters of importance.
Transparency has been limited by ineffective and contradictory communication while the integrity
of top government officials remains questionable following revelations by President Hakainde
Hichilema that some of them were allegedly learning how to siphon public funds.
With regards the anti-corruption fight, there has been a general lack of a comprehensive
strategy that will provide a framework and effective basis for this fight. Notably, the seemingly
exclusive focus on fighting corruption of the ‘past’ while negating that of present has made the
fight against corruption much of political fight. Further the apparent attention to asset recovery,
without balancing it with prosecution in order to attain justice has generated a considerable public
outcry, which is understandable. We therefore call on government to refocus its efforts towards
effective and efficient investigations and prosecutions.
There seemingly was great lag for UPND Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers to make
their annual declarations of their interests, assets, liabilities and incomes, a fact that raises
questions on their levels of commitment to matters of transparency and accountability. Most made
their declarations way beyond the legally stipulated time of 30 days after their first date of
appointment. There are also seemingly dissonant relationships among some of the Law
Enforcement Agencies, and at times these internal disagreements emerge into public view, which
we feel are unnecessary distractions which may lead to loss of public confidence in these
institutions.
We have noticed that there have been spots or exhibited tendency by UPND leadership to shield,
to protect those whose actions are suspected to be corrupt. We would like to urge the President
not to shield any one, especially the Ministers that may involve themselves in corrupt practices.
The President honoured anyone he appointed and it is not his duty to protect anyone who acts
contrary to the law and to the President’s standard of operations.
We have noted that there have been questionable actions in the procurement of some goods
such as fertilizer, awarding of contract and in matters of declaration of interest. We urge the
government to absolutely be transparent about their actions and furnish detailed information of
such transactions to the public so as to build the confidence of the people.
Ladies and gentlemen, the theme of this year’s African Anti-Corruption Day deliberately focuses
on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has not only wreaked havoc in Zambia, but has also been
used as an opportunity to abuse public funds. The Office of the Auditor General conducted an
audit of the utilization of COVID-19 resources for the period July 2020 to October 2021. The audit
sought to ascertain whether the resources allocated for the fight against COVID-19 and the
COVID-19 stimulus fund had been utilized for the intended purpose. TI-Z analyzed this Audit
Report and noted more than K793.3 million worth of outstanding audit issues related to the
management of COVID-19 funds under the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU).
The main audit issues included the discovery that the DMMU did not provide documentation such
as request for quotations and actual quotations used in the evaluation for 21 shortlisted suppliers
who were awarded contracts in the sum of K224.5 million. Furthermore, the DMMU engaged
suppliers of re-usable face masks costing K50.5 million without any competition and as at 31st
October 2021, the DMMU had accumulated debt in amounts totaling K394.7 million from the
procurement of face masks due to the failure to confirm availability of funds before contract award.
Perhaps the most shocking revelation was that contracts amounting to K63.1 million were
awarded to suppliers whose names and nature of business did not relate to medical supplies and
there was no evidence that the suppliers had dealt with DMMU before on similar products and or
had experience in the supply of such medical supplies.
TI-Z further noted that at the Ministry of Health, there was a total of K1.98 billion worth of
outstanding audit issues, with respect to COVID-19 funds. There was lack of transparency in the
manner in which the Ministry selected 34 suppliers that received the Requests for Quotations and
were later awarded 79 contracts worth K1.32 billion. Out of the same suppliers issued with
Requests for Quotations, 6 suppliers with a contract sum of K344.9 million had names and nature
of business which did not relate to medical supplies and there was no evidence that the suppliers
had dealt with the Ministry before on similar products. A scrutiny of the various bids submitted
revealed that the Ministry had engaged in cover bidding. This refers to the practice in which a
competitor submits bids that are intended to be unsuccessful so that another collaborator can be
awarded the contract. This resulted in unfair and uncompetitive procurements costing K136.7
million. Furthermore, it was also discovered that stores items costing K52.9 million were
unaccounted for in that there were no receipts and disposal details.
All these anomalies were largely due to a lack of adherence to transparency and accountability
measures in procurement processes. The neglect of transparency and accountability norms has
therefore impacted on countries like Zambia that are already facing economic challenges thereby
contributing to a slower recovery process. TI-Z therefore calls on the UPND administration to
actualize their promise on taking the Auditor General’s Report seriously. Those who participated
in the plunder of public resources meant for fighting the pandemic and supporting vulnerable
households to cope with the impact of the pandemic should be investigated and prosecuted to
the fullest extent of the law.
In conclusion, TI-Z reiterates the African Union’s key message for this year’s commemoration
for Member states such as Zambia to promote accountability and transparency measures in the
procurement system and to work with the Civil Society in performing Third-Party Monitoring.
We continue encouraging the government to pursue past corruption while and equally attending
to present corruption. We equally urge the government to attend to the corruption of the future by
established the anti-corruption fast tract division court, strengthen the whistle blowers Act as well
as the ACC Act and of court enact the Access to information law.
We further reiterate our never-ending call for concerted efforts to address the scourge of
corruption. As an organisation, we have continued to offer ourselves to government as partners
in this daunting fight, over which we seem to be making little progress as a country. Together we
can win this fight, but only if government begins to see us in civil society as equal partners and
not enemies. We urge all stakeholders to seize the opportunity to make progress in the fight
against corruption.
We are convinced that with effective concerted efforts among different stakeholders, our collective
resolve to win the fight against corruption will be enhanced, and that will be a big step towards
resetting Zambia on a better trajectory.
I thank you for your attention, and may God bless us all.
