THE 2014 Zambia Bribe Payers Index (ZBPI) has rated the Zambia Police Service traffic section as the most corrupt institution while the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) ranks second.
This is according to the 2014 ZBPI survey jointly conducted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Transparency International Zambia (TIZ). The results were announced yesterday.
The index shows that bribe demand increased by 6.7 percent in 2014 from 4.7 percent in 2012.
The bribe demand increased among the supervisor and junior staff categories in the public service.
Secretary to the Cabinet Roland Msiska said in a speech read for him by his deputy Peter Kasanda yesterday that ZBPI can translate into better accountability and governance in Zambia.
Dr Msiska said information in the ZBPI is helpful in understanding the supply side of corruption.
He said the findings in the report reflect the challenges and achievements in the area of corruption.
TIZ executive director Goodwell Lungu said most people pay bribes because they feel it is normal to do so.
“It is the wish of each and every Zambian to see that there is a reduction in corruption in the Zambia Police and RTSA,” Mr Lungu said.
Mr Lungu said TIZ will start conducting sensitisation campaigns in the Zambia Police Service traffic section and RTSA, which have been rated as the most corrupt.
He said that K600,000 has been allocated to conduct the sensitisation campaign with the hope that the two perceived most corrupt institutions will be corruption-free.
Did you need to spend money on such a survey which is obvious??
Even Kaninamisa Lungu knows this but it’s low on his list of priorities
The police under PF have been very corrupt & lack of professionalism. They have failed miserably.
If not tackled, police corruption will increase due to the fact of the above mentioned weakness of Zambian police, & more importantly, they are underpaid. The govt has ceased to pay the police’s home bills of which the their skeletal remains, CORRUPTION & UNPROFESSIONALISM!
In other words, they are themselves BANDITS, CORRUPT CRIMINALS or THUGS. How do you expect to END corruption when the police are at the center of criminal activities?
Pruning them is the first step by which PF can embark on. They are corrupt day in & out b’coz top leaders’ve infected the whole country & system with BANDIT.
Illiberal!
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Shame PF Police!
Dont blame PF even in MMD,this is a serious matter lets work together and sort this out especially KITWE CENTRAL POLICE (MULENGA and IKAMAN)
@Skeleton you are a skeleton as per your name for real. ZP are better paid now than during any other government in Zambia’s history. Sata tried to improve their pay.
Mr TIZ Boss “we don’t pay because we feel it’s normal’ we pay to avoid inconvenience. Advice ZP/RATSA to come up with 14 days Settlement period for traffic offences, these bookings should be logged unto your RATSA system. The more punitive measures there are the more corruption, How do you expect me to pay K250 right away for a small offence when I can give a cop K100 and am let to go.
The GRZ should not approve those high penalty or fines as they are incentives for corruption. Senior RATSA / ZP have taken advantage their Juniors who cash ma K2000 on daily basis they hve built Mansions, own Trucks, Luxury Vehicles etc. Unless you pretend not to see these or you want coverage speaking anyhow. Bring that K600,000.00 so we use it on needy matters in society.
Mwine Zed
This is the first issue which needs to be STOPPED is promoting corruption. You’re positively identified by your own promotion of corruption as you proclaimed that,
…”How do you expect me to pay K250 right away for a small offence when I can give a cop K100 and am let to go”…..
Ending corruption starts by you. Be disciplined, respect the rules, if found wanting by police, act responsible & pay your fines.
The issue is that, you only think about your own getaway, whilst encouraging corruption by enticing payments to police corruptly. If you break the law, be a good citizen, pay & a RECEIPT must be issued.
Ending corruption starts by you & not echoing that ” I can give a cop K100 and am let to go”.
Not So?
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Mwine Zed
Nevertheless, these institutions should give offenders ample time to make the payment. The issue of “pay right away” is misplaced b’coz, its these dodgy tricks PF police officers are using to connive the already suspecting offender of pay cut. Both offenders & police are culprits promoting corrupt tendencies of which corruption is a cancer that destroys a state. High level corruption is one of the major factor that could lead the State to a FAILED one.
All I know in Zambia, poverty, illiteracy, arrogance & quick money through laziness has created this atmosphere of corruption.
Corruption is also extremely high heels over the head, the leaders at the epic are stinking corruption.
Nigerians are coming for their Oil $ RB?
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Mwine ZED. There is already law that you have to pay within 7 days. You are not obliged to pay on the spot. They just ticket you and you go on your way to find money to pay the fine.
in asmuch as the govt and zambia police allows instant payments from traffic offenders, they should forget about stamping out corruption. All traffic police officers mount road blocks to make their own money even those at check points like sabina have turned it into a road block.
Therefore, the only alternative is to stop instant fines on offenders and allow them to go and pay somewhere like the post office, or anywhere else than impounding vehicles or grab licences from motorists. Look at the xenophobic SA, You make any traffic offence but you pay later but within 1 month.
Like I was telling Mwine ZED above, you don’t have to pay instantly. You can pay the fine within 7 days. It is just that a lot of you don’t want to know the law. You are not obliged to pay on the spot. Please know this. STOP CORRUPTION NOW by not paying your fine on the spot. Thank you
What are you talking about police have been corrupt since independence. So give us a break
And now it’s In~Dependence!
The whole institution is rotten to the core. Maybe in those days the police where corrupt only at night. Now they have metamorphosed into sly police thugs, corruption during the day, at night & in slumber.
Njala ya nyokola! After KKs 27 years dictatorship, the “flea or flies (Free)market economy brought by MMD seems to be currently understood in terms of CORRUPTION as empowerment.
Honestly under PF, the corruption levels of police have extremely increased, very unprofessional & have turned into thieves, criminals, thugs or rather BANDITS!
The system is rotten, it needs sacrifice of the people to respect the rule of law, civilian & otherwise in promoting effective yet efficient transparencies.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
…..this survey do not hold any ‘water’….it is not enough just to come up with a baseless statistics…..ZBPI/ACC should come up with figures …something like….’during the period under survey…X total number of cases were convicted and out of that, Y number were to do with ZP traffic officers..Z number were to do with RSTA’…etc give us figures please..!!…the other thing is the number of cases verses the amount of money involved…..you would find that ZP are involved with a million cases totalling only K200, 000 while say RDA or ministers are involved with only 5 cases but with a jaw dropping of K200,000,000,000..so ZBPI have to do more to come up with a realistic overview picture…otherwise ZBPI must also rate themselves among the most for sharing K600,000 doing nothing
@scrutinizerer you are spot on! You have spoken well. If ZBPI/ACC were really serious about doing a proper convincing survey, they should haven given us the total number of zp convicted corruption cases out of the whole figure subjected to the survey, otherwise this survey is merely based on hearsay, period…
Its the whole litter to blame. you have motorists who infringe a myriad of road rules and are more than pleased to give away a fifty to get away with it. the poorly paid police guy gets it to help get bread for his school going kids and you want to climb the top of Everest to tell everyone in the galaxy who will care to listen, that `oh Zambian Cops are corrupt’ get a life! Actually corruption if not worse slavery is paying people change in extreme contrast to the work they do.
My emphasis has and will always be that there should be a reduction in penalty fees. Just peg the fee at K50 and offender should be demanding for a genuine receipt. By doing so, these monies will end up in police service coffers and not in their pockets. Surely who will pay K250 or K270?Please look into these GRZ.
This is a useless survey. Who doesn’t know that the Traffic police is the most corrupt institution in this country. And you want to waste more money to sensitize them for what? They have even refused to stop mounting road blocks with impunity as directed by their Minister. Those people are very indispciplined you can’t educate or sensitize them.
picture this. you are told to pay 375 kwacha immediately or your vehicle gets impounded and you appear in their so called fast-track court. you tell them you only have 50 kwacha and they say give them and you go. i would pay for an offence i have committed if i am given enough time like in other countries. here you are left with little option but to either get inconvenienced for the rest of the week or oil the cops pocket linings. people dont see bribery as being normal but as the least of the inconveniences presented to them
Ratsa sale driver’s license to people who have never been to driving schools.Too much corruption at Ratsa offices
Do policemen and women even read newspapers , later on attend such conferences to know that they have been condemned as number one culprits of DOUBLE TOBELA recipients?
What a survey surely! Who does not know that police and RATSA are the most corrupt. Just reduce on the fines so that people are able to pay to the State and not individuals.
I think lawyers (followed closely by magistrates and judges!) are the most corrupt – on a grand scale.
Police are just small time thieves!
we should be ashamed of ourselves as Zambians. the entire Zambian society is corrupt.
start with the church
corrupt cases in state house
hospitals
ministry of land
councils
the judicially, the army, parliamentarians, the general public…..
etc etc.
The whole country stinks with corruption as mwanawasa once stated. Police officers being the most public figures found every where in Zambia and specialised in criminal matters knows what is going on in Zambia, hence they can not be left out. they are just participating in what is rampantly going on in our corrupt society. fellow Zambians reason before concluding on certain matters.
Who wants to die poor anyway?
But Rtsa people are never arrested by the ACC because ACC also pay bribes to get licences and lateron not be inconvenienced. Anyway corruption is good because even the USA used it to get Saddam Hussain,s whereabouts
On the other hand, the salaries of the police are very bad,yet they use there personal tok tym & cell phones when on official duties. One assumes the govt can’t manage the allowances that go with that job like- in USA, CHiNA, BOtSWANA to mention but a few
You are right there, these guys even pick up bodies on the roads without gloves. The only thing is to stop most road blocks and only have the essential ones. The cops don t even have money to have a cup of tea in the morning let alone those doing the 12-8 shift.
I do not agree totaly with this survey; first of all corruption must be stopped at the top. ACC should not even talk, what are they doing about the Kambwilis, the Mulenga Satas the Chikwanda boy and too many to mention; the cops are taking advantage that they are being used unproffessionaly by the big bosses and they know they can t touch them. So the clean up of corruption should start at the top most.