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SPECIAL REPORT: Without political will, anti corruption fight futile

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CORRUPTION issues have attracted very heated debate in Zimbabwe
CORRUPTION issues have attracted very heated debate in Zimbabwe and many people are left wondering if high institutions in the country like Parliament have the capacity to deal with the scourge, especially if these misdeeds are perpetrated by top leadership like the Executive.

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VENERANDA LANGASPECIAL REPORT BY VENERANDA LANGA

According to Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ)’s Annual State of Corruption Report (2012) which looked at the mining sector (gold, diamonds and platinum), Zimbabwe’s poverty is man-made with corruption being one of the main factors.

“One of the greatest paradoxes of our time is how a nation so endowed with vast natural resources has some of the poorest citizens in the world,” said TIZ in the preamble of its report.

“It also remains an enigma how a government that sits on the largest deposit of alluvial diamonds in the world, constituting 20 to 25% of the world’s deposits and the second largest platinum deposits in the world, continues to struggle with adequately resourcing its national fiscus to finance all aspects of government expenditure.”

Although corruption seems to be one of the top factors that has led to Zimbabwe’s severe economic downturn, Africa as a whole has been affected by the thieving plague to the extent Members of Parliament on the continent formed the African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption (Apnac) to work on, and strengthen parliamentary capacity to fight corruption and promote good governance.

In Zimbabwe Apnac was formed in December 2003 during the commemorations of Anti-Corruption Day where MPs had gathered at an event organised by TIZ.

According to Apnac chairperson, MDC-T legislator for Kambuzuma, Willias Madzimure, MPs decided to tackle corruption head -on and formed an Apnac Zimbabwe charter in August 2004.

“During the previous Seventh Parliament we had 67 MPs who were members of Apnac, and in this current session of Parliament we issued out 100 forms and so far 55 MPs have signed them confirming their membership of Apnac,” said Madzimure.

He said Apnac’s advocacy work – with the contribution of other organisations — helped force government to set up the Anti-Corruption Commission, and in the Houses of Assembly MPs had been instrumental in moving motions with a view to curbing corruption and promoting good corporate governance practices.

“Parliament has the capacity to deal with corruption through its oversight role where different portfolio and thematic committees have been picking on issues of corruption,” he said.

Madzimure said examples of portfolio committees that had made members of the Executive and senior government officials to tremble when summoned to appear before them were the Public Accounts Committee which dealt with audit reports of ministries, State Enterprises and Parastatals and Local Authorities, and the Mines and Energy committee which grilled people on mishaps in the mining and energy sectors, adding during the tenure of the late Zanu PF legislator Edward Chindori-Chininga as chairman of the committee they produced a damning report exposing the rot in the mining and energy sectors.

“In the National Assembly and Senate, MPs have also raised questions to ministers seeking to uproot corruption. However, one of the greatest impediments is that many ministers bunk question-and-answer sessions. However, we have now seen some bit of movement where some ministers take Parliament seriously and recently we saw Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa responding to the motion I moved in the House on corruption and good corporate governance where he came up with new regulations for State enterprises and parastatals,” he said.

Despite the fight against corruption that Parliament seems to have put up to date, none of the legislators has declared their assets, including ministers.

Madzimure said as Apnac chairman he was disappointed that although the new Constitution stipulated declaration of assets, this had not been implemented.

He said if Parliament administration continued to drag the pace of implementing declaration of assets he was going to bring the issue to the House as a motion.

According to Madzimure, declaration of assets was one of the ways to stamp out corrupt activities, and members of the public could actually monitor public officials’ lifestyles compared to the assets which they declared.

“If people begin to notice that a certain public official is living a lifestyle which is not commensurate with their wages and assets before they got into office, then they can demand that investigations on that particular person should be done. People like ministers, the entire executive, the judiciary, senior government officials, public service directors, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Prison Services, officers at the Registrar-General’s Department, and other officials at departments that handle taxpayers’ money should declare their assets,” he said.

Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) director Terry Mutsvangwa said the organisation had actually petitioned Parliament to operationalise declaration of assets as a way of combating corruption, but they were disappointed that their petition seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

Madzimure also said one of the biggest impediments in the fight against corruption was lack of a Whistleblowers Act in the country.

“Without a whistleblower’s law it becomes virtually impossible to fight corruption because people who want to give information are not protected. It is one of the most important pieces of legislation that must be put in place as soon as possible. MPs are also not protected when debating on corruption because we have had occasions when some have been telephoned by other legislators from their own party and challenged about statements they made in the House about corruption.”

Another impediment, he said, was the party whipping system which had capability of shutting up MPs when debating so that they sang the same chorus as their party even if they did not really agree.

“However, as far as current debate on corruption is concerned, MPs have realised that in as far as they can be whipped, they will be compromising their positions if they do not speak out on issues of corruption. MPs are representatives of the people and when corruption takes place it is the poor people that suffer. If we do not speak for the people they will in turn punish us come elections,” he said.

During a recent public discussion on corruption at Sapes Trust in Harare, TIZ executive director Mary Jane Ncube spoke on whistleblowing saying her organisation and other civic society groups that fight corruption had names and evidence of corrupt officials, but the greatest impediment to naming and shaming people was imminent persecution of the whistleblowers since there was no law to protect them.

Zimbabwe has institutions that were set up to deal with corruption, but it seems a lot of challenges bedevil the smooth operations of those institutions.

Madzimure mentioned the Anti Corruption Commission, the Auditor-General’s Office, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and the Financial Intelligence Unit, as well as institutions like the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) which should be seen thwarting corruption before it even manifested.

“I think the Auditor-General’s Office is doing their level best to fight corruption, but they need moral support. They also need financial support and resources to be able to fully carry out audits and be up to date so that their audit reports are recent. Remuneration of officers at the Auditor-General’s Office is also important. They need to decentralise considering that they now audit local authorities as well. There is also a need for our laws to define what is corruption, because the current Constitution is weak in definition of what is corruption. We need an Anti -Corruption Act and an Anti-Corruption Commission which is independent, adequately funded and has the capacity to investigate, and also have arresting powers. They must be fully protected by the laws because we do not want a situation where they have a search warrant and are not allowed to do their work by big fish they are investigating.”

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2013, the ZRP, which is an institution supposed to be pivotal in combating the scourge of corruption, is one of the most corrupt institutions, especially their traffic section.

Pertaining to the CIO, Madzimure’s assertions were that the institution had misdirected efforts as their co-business seemed to be stamping out opposition politics when their responsibilities should be to protect the nation and its resources.

“Their responsibilities must be to protect the nation, but our diamonds are being smuggled and unaccounted for while they concentrate on politics. The Financial Intelligence Unit should also be able to investigate all dubious transactions that are done inside and outside the country. Massive bank transfers that are done out of the country should be busted by that unit,” Madzimure said.

Legal expert Chris Mhike said the fact that Zimbabwe had 350 legislators in Parliament meant they had enough capacity to deal with corruption; otherwise failure by the legislators to combat it would raise questions about their relevance in terms of numbers.

“With four years to go before the next general election, and with two esteemed chambers — the Senate and the House of Assembly — filled up with dozens of honourable men and women drawn from all geographical locations and of numerous academic and social backgrounds, it is sensible in these circumstances to assume that our Parliament does have the capacity to deal with corruption.”

One of the greatest paradoxes of our time is how a nation so endowed with vast natural resources has some of the poorest citizens in the world. Corruption is one of the top factors that has led to Zimbabwe’s severe economic downturn
One of the greatest paradoxes of our time is how a nation so endowed with vast natural resources has some of the poorest citizens in the world.Corruption is one of the top factors that has led to Zimbabwe’s severe economic downturn

Mhike said the laws to deal with corruption were also adequate:

“The broad spectrum of laws in Zimbabwe’s statute book today creates a substantially healthy legislative framework for an effective fight against corruption. The Prevention of Corruption Act, the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, and a host of other anti-corruption statutes, all make for an impressive and solid anti-graft mechanism. The significance, worth and efficacy of these laws are, however, massively compromised by a number of retrogressive factors that include the partisan application of law, lack of political will on the part of those in high office, and the corrupt character of many who should be implementing and enforcing the law.”

He, however, said law enforcement agencies like the police and the Prosecuting Authority must be capacitated for the just, equitable and fair application of the law.

“These agencies must also be professionalised and cleansed of their partisan connections so that the anti-graft drive may be advanced without fear or favour. Further, the existing gaps in law must be filled as a matter of urgency through appropriate legislation. For instance, our statute law must be enhanced in the area of whistleblower protection.”

Mhike continued: “Regrettably, our Chapter 13 bodies, that is Institutions to Combat Corruption and Crime (under the Constitution of Zimbabwe), including the Anti-Corruption Commission; as well as all of the Chapter 12 institutions — Independent Commissions Supporting Democracy — are the worst neglected of Zimbabwe’s constitutional entities. These bodies are invariably under-funded, and denied the independence that should characterise them.

“The political interference witnessed at the Anti-Corruption Commission, and the unjust prosecution of a commissioner from the same Commission in the last 12 months, clearly illustrate the monstrosity of the spanners that have been thrown onto the anti-corruption works, by those who wield political and administrative power, thereby incapacitating these bodies from effectively combating the subject vice.”

Strengthen legal, institutional capacity of governance system

Regional body Apnac’s Parliamentarians Handbook on Controlling Corruption says there is need to strengthen institutions of governance to combat corruption.

“As long as the operating political environment is conducive to corruption, even well intentioned individuals and well designed policies can lead to disappointing results and greater corruption. The central thrust of an effective fight against corruption is therefore the strengthening of the legal and institutional capacity of the governance system,” the Apnac handbook said.

Among the measures proposed by the handbook to help Parliamentarians fight corruption are:

Building political will by setting a good example. Political will is defined as demonstrated credible intent of actors to attack the perceived causes and effects of corruption at systematic level.

To deal with the problem, the first area of focus for anti-corruption is Parliament itself, with the aim of making the House politically hostile to corruption and therefore strong enough to engender political will in other organs of State.

The process of building political will should begin well before parliamentarians enter the august House and prospective candidates should make public declarations of contributions, assets and expenditure during political campaigns so that only those who are free of corruption and criminal records qualify to run for elections.

Parliamentarians should demonstrate commitment to combat corruption by ensuring their personal integrity and that of Parliament. This will entail enacting legislation on campaign financing reforms, code of conduct, wealth declarations, establishment for pay levels for parliamentarians that are transparent, conflict of interest guidelines, performance enhancement such as recall provisions, and immunity from persecution for parliamentarians over their contributions in parliamentary debates and committee meetings, but not over criminal issues.