More Needed On K2.2 Bn Lost To Corruption – TI-Z

Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has responded with concern to the recent release of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) 2020 report, which exposes losses of K2.2 billion to corruption. 

The group’s major concern is that the report is “appallingly shallow” and “lacking in detail”. For example, while it identifies 18 reports of corruption totalling K2.2 million, it fails to go into the details behind the numbers and explain who is involved in the cases and what the nature is of these reports.  

TI-Z also notes the absence of any follow up on the shortcomings identified in the previous report, such as environmental crimes relating to the Mukula tree trade which were highlighted in the 2019 Trends Analysis report. 

In a statement released by TI-Z Chapter President Sampa J. Kalungu the group points to a worrying trend in recent times:

“Zambians will recall that in the wake of the release of that report, whose contents did not sit well with government, President Edgar Lungu publicly attacked the FIC and accused it of spreading rumors and being on a witch hunt which was poisoning the country,” Kalungu writes. 

“We have noted that the two reports that the FIC has released since that public rebuke have both depreciated in quality, suggesting that the FIC is slowly being cowed into submission to the narrow interests of politicians rather than those of the wider Zambian citizenry,” he continues. 

TI-Z however applauds FIC for the increase in reports of suspected corruption in the face of challenges and reinforces the importance of a “professional, strong and truly independent FIC” as a necessity “if we are to make progress not just in the fight against corruption, but generally in adhering to the principles and ideals of good governance.”