Corruption Countdown #9. Fourteen Officials Arrested In Choma

To commemorate one year since the New Dawn government took office, this month Open Zambia is taking stock on one of the UPND’s major manifesto promises: clamping down on corruption. We’re counting down the top ten biggest busts of the past year to see how what a difference this new administration is making.

 #9. Fourteen Officials Arrested for Graft in Choma 

In October 2021, just a few months after the UPND took office and swore to clamp down on corruption, officers from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) arrested 14 former and current government officials in Choma for graft offenses.

Those arrested included former Southern Province Permanent Secretary Sibanze Simuchoba, who was charged with false accounting involving some K623,000.

Alongside the former PS were Choma’s former principle accountant Enoce Kashweka and Chief Planer at the Choma Provincial Administration Linda Siwale, who were also alleged to have authorised the transfer of funds from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Relief Account without approval from the Secretary to the Treasury.

11 others were charged with fraudulent false accounting for falsifying retirement entries, as well as claiming back false travel expenses.

The arrests came just months after President Hakainde Hichilema pledged in his inauguration speech to beef up the powers of the ACC and crack down on officials who had been bleeding the country’s coffers dry under the Patriotic Front government.