THE call by President Edgar Lungu for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to intensify the fight against graft is timely and must be adhered to.
Corruption deprives ordinary people of basic services and undermines the country’s development. It is, therefore, the duty of every Zambian to contribute to the fight against graft.
ACC is at the moment dealing with 413 cases of suspected corruption received in the first quarter of this year alone albeit only 129 reports contained substances of graft.
Corruption is not only unacceptable, it is a crime against development and the consequences are borne by marginalised people.
Government has been clear about its position on corruption hence its commitment to investing in ensuring access to necessities in fighting graft.
But reports of corruption in the public and private sector are a growing concern even when it was expected that by now, the loopholes should have been sealed.
There seems to be no ‘immediate’ action to the glaring financial irregularities revealed in the Auditor General’s Annual reports published in the recent past few years, for instance.
Punitive measures must be taken against erring officials including civil servants perpetuating the loss of public property, a scourge which is seemingly at an alarming level.
This is one of the ways the public can have confidence that the tax payers’ money is being put to good use.
Government must put in place long lasting measures that will curb the abuse of public funds.
The Government funded programmes such as the Social Cash Transfer Scheme, Youth Development Fund (YDF), Constituency Development Fund (CDF) are meant to benefit the people, but how are these funds monitored?
Do the Ministries of Community Development, Local Government and Youth and Sport, have a monitoring system to ensure that the funds are used as intended?

. ACC is at the moment dealing with 413 cases of suspected corruption received in the first quarter of this year

Concerns have also been raised about the fuel procurement process and the awarding of road contracts. Now is there a deliberate system to monitor the transparency in these processes?
What about the employment processes where employers seek inducements?
This is going on in our country and it must come to a stop as jobs should only be earned by merit.
There is also need to step up the monitoring of how donor funding was being utilised particularly in community schools and health centres.
Year on year donors are giving Zambia money and it is only appropriate that there is a strict monitoring measure of how these funds are being utilised.
Our country cannot succeed in the fight against poverty if people continue to dip their fingers in public or private coffers and that is why the corruption must be put to a stop.
Government should consider the establishment of a fast-track court on corruption to ensure that cases of graft are disposed off in good time.
It is sad to note that corruption cases dating back many years ago under the Task Force on Corruption are still before the courts of law.
There should also be a law in place compelling all political parties to state their source of funding for the sake of accountability.
ACC should not be selective in how they handle cases of corruption.
The Commission should effectively deal with complaints of graft to ensure transparency and accountability across all spheres of the Zambian community.
ACC should decentralise its operations to other parts of the country and introduce their services in major local languages to encourage people to interact with the Commission.
Government and every other stakeholder should enhance partnerships and ensure a firm approach so that anyone caught in the act of corruption is brought to book.
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