The high level corruption exposed by the Auditor-General Mildred Chiri which is prevalent in several government departments cannot be stopped if the attitude of policing agents is not changed, analysts have warned.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
The Auditor-General exposed numerous anomalies, including corruption, bad corporate governance and general mismanagement in government departments that have gobbled up millions of dollars.
Transparency International- Zimbabwe chapter board chairman Loughty Dube said the Auditor-General did an excellent job in exposing the high level corruption, but said that would count for nothing if action was not taken.
“Institutionally, police have the capacity to arrest those people fingered in various reports,” said Dube. “But the challenge we have is on political will to deal with corruption itself. What is lacking is political will and this has been lacking since independence. That also goes to the Anti-Corruption Commission. They might have the capacity to act but the question that remains is that of political will.”
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum chairman Cousin Zilala said the country first had to deal with the culture of impunity that had led to inaction by responsible authorities in dealing with the issue.
“The capacity of police to deal with the corruption cases is there but the culture of impunity is the one that is destroying us,” he said.
“As a country, if we adhere to basic principles of accountability and transparency, then it would not be a problem to deal with such issues. Government should just act now. There have been very few incidences where government departments have been called to account for their misdemeanours.”
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The Committee of People’s Charter singled out political interference as the major stumbling block in dealing with corruption.
“The CPC contends that our greatest challenge as a nation in dealing with these issues is the lack of political will. There are already existing constitutional and legal instruments and structures to deal with such issues. For example, we have a constitutionally provided for Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission [Zacc], the police and judiciary; and statutes such as the Criminal Law [Codification and Reform] Act among others,” said CPC.
“If used, these can address the said issues. There is also a lot of political interference and polarisation which then tends to render such institutions and instruments impotent. Key constitutional institutions like Zacc are improperly constituted and deliberately underfunded which further erodes their independence and proper functionality.”
ZimRights chairperson Passmore Nyakureba said the pieces of legislation in the country were not being harmonised with the constitution to ensure public accountability, good corporate governance and criminal liability for any misdeeds or malpractices by people occupying public office.
He said victimisation of policing agents had been a cause for concern in the country.
“We all remember the harsh purging of the Anti-Corruption Commission following their efforts to investigate certain branches of the executive as corruption sweeps the country like a heat wave,” said Nyakureba. “As things stand, I see no way we can aspire for good governance which our constitution seeks to promote. Our practices are bad and so are our public morals.”
National Prosecuting Authority’s acting corporate affairs manager Allen Chifokoyo said they were ready to prosecute any matters brought before them by the police.
“The NPA does not condone corruption and will prosecute all matters brought to it as per its constitutional mandate. If criminal offences were committed, we will not hesitate to prosecute them. Already, as you might be aware, there are ministry of finance officials who are being prosecuted for misappropriating money from the fiscus,” said Chifokoyo.
