July 10, 2024
State House on 10 July 2024 issued a press statement in response to the FIC 2023 Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Report in which the president is urging the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate all the suspicious transactions raised in the Report. What the FIC Report demonstrates is that serious acts of corruption of similar proportion to those committed under the PF regime are also happening under the leadership of the UPND government. That nothing has bee done by ACC and other law enforcement agencies suggests that the management of these institutions is either incompetent or is captured and sitting on serious cases of corruption. Either way, simply urging them to investigate cases thoroughly will likely yield nothing substantial.
There is need for drastic action by the President at many levels. Urging action by law enforcement agencies is not enough. Some senior officers in government are operating with impunity and their acts of corruption are now public knowledge. Who has not heard of the serious allegations that the state chambers are a clearing house for corruption and money laundering deals? While under PF State House was the clearing house for corrupt deals, state chambers under the UPND government seem to have perfected that art.
It is also clear that not only are institutions such as ACC not just sitting on cases (as the FIC Report clearly manifests) but that these institutions have been in the forefront of making some dirty deals that undermine the fight against corruption. Going by press reports, ACC, for example, has made legally senseless settlements immunizing some of the most corrupt individuals, thereby shielding them from justice and accountability. The same corruption tainted immunity deals under PF are now being used under the current government in a manner that shows no commitment to fighting corruption.
The fight against corruption, which started with great promise when President Hichilema took office, is slowly crumbling and needs urgent rescue. Under these circumstances, it is not enough to urge law enforcement agencies to investigate cases. Law enforcement agencies are part of the problem and part of the rot. The president as the appointing authority must act to remove incompetent and corrupt heads of such institutions. He must also deeply look at his state chambers. There can be no serious fight against corruption if the state chambers are compromised. In the long term, the president needs to facilitate reform of the ACC and enact legislation supportive of a credible and professional fight against corruption, detached from vicissitudes of politics.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. O’Brien Kaaba teaches constitutional law at the University of Zambia and is a senior research fellow at Saipar.