Financial Intelligence Centre Director General Mary Chirwa has said that the publication of the F.I.C report to the public is within its mandate.
Ms Chirwa said that the report is as a result of strategic analysis and does not contain sensitive or confidential information. Ms Chirwa said this in a telephone interview with ZNBC News yesterday.
Ms Chirwa also said that the institution has only distributed the same report to the President , Public and various stakeholders .
Ms Chirwa said F.I.C adds value to suspicious transaction report which are only distributed to the law enforcement agencies depending on the underlying crime that has been identified .
Ms Chirwa said Government should be praised for the work that the F.I.C is doing because it clearly shows that President Edgar Lungu is not interfering with its operations, and further urged the public to read the law.
However, the Young African Leaders Initiative said that it was elated to hear from the Drug Enforcement Commission and its wise counsel to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
YALI President Andrew Ntewewe said that the advice given by the DEC is timely and the FIC will do well to heed this counsel.
He said it has been YALI’s long held view that the FIC oversteps its jurisdiction and mandate by publishing raw, inconclusive and speculative information and it is also clear, reading the FIC (Amendment) Act 2016, that dissemination of FIC data is limited to the clearly defined professional law enforcement and counterpart institutions both at home and abroad.
Mr. Ntewewe said the public is certainly not one of the entities to whom such information should be disseminated, not even in redacted form.
He has reiterated that the role of the FIC is collect and collate, but not to publish raw intelligence as they must simply disseminate information regarding suspicious financial or other transactions, to the Law Enforcement Agencies for them to pursue.
Mr. Ntewewe said YALI is opposed to publishing inconclusive and raw intelligence data to the public as it has dire consequences on the country.
He said these reports of raw data unfairly and unnecessarily harm the reputation of otherwise perfectly innocent persons as a result of the speculation generated by the format of the FIC which purport to have some basis for labelling the Suspicious Activities being reported.
Mr. Ntewewe added that without any detailed investigation at both ends of any such suspicious transaction, the FIC has utterly no basis for suggesting impropriety in its reporting, and any such suggestion is unfounded and possibly malicious.
He has emphasised that YALI considers the Financial Intelligence Centre to be an absolutely vital tool in Zambia’s fight against corruption and in detecting and preventing financial flows which facilitate terrorism.
YALI always “advises” against truth, honesty, accountability, good governance, rule of law…
How many pieces of silver this bunch of non-comps are paid by the Plunderers Federation under leadership of Endemically Corrupt Leader?
I am liking FIC.
Good advice from DEC, though.
Excellent view from YALI.
An oversight of an act.
Good point Ntewewe.
Feeding the public to speculate is dangerous but FIC must remain resolute, undeterred and focussed.
Wondering why the president looked visibly concerned and nervous.
Good job FIC. Good job ACC, I hear you are already investigating 16 of these public fund plunderers. Skeptics were asking on whose side FIC is. I say on the people’s side. The people must know somehow.
If DEC money laundering division was not incompetent in its duties there would no need for FIC because investigating financial crimes is part of its job.
But because DEC is Lungu ‘s chicken Penn all crimes commited by top PF cadres involved in drug trafficking and money laundering go unpunished. Recently drug evidence disappeared and no culprits have been arrested. How did that happen?
FIC s duty is to investigate and share info to all stake holders because PF hides the crimes committed by its members. If FIC did not publish its findings to the public then it would guilty of aiding and hiding financial crimes.
Those worried are the PF culprits mentioned in the report.
I BELIEVE DEC! FIC’S TEETHING PROBLEMS.
FIC, the new kid on the block must protect investigators’ sources and methods. Can the public properly handle and appreciate raw data? Like FIC report rightly put it, no cause for epileptic reactions and fits, policies that should emanate must also guide and institute FIC report stages of release with a final copy reaching the public. No wonder others are seeing this as a politically inclined report. You gotta be kidding me if you think your report will draw the same kind’a reactions. Matures don’t perceive it that way. Fainthearted goons like double h draw talking points and reach conclusions.
FIC is cool. We need FIC. We need names mentioned. Investigate parastatals too!
Is FIC an NGO? Is it a Non-governmental or is a duplicate of CID?
The CID also don’t mention names of suspects they call them “Subject 1, Chawama 1, Plot 1”, they don’t mention names, but usually their cases are confidential unless they publish “On Wanted” only picture without name. Even in Civics in our old days we learnt about this.
My point is:
FIC is right to act as Imfwi mfwiti, without mentioning names.
Umutima wandi uli pa equator with that Mary. So respectful, total package, like DEC boss, naena ulya is one of the best. These how Zambian women should be… Look at her, like Maureen.
I highly commend FIC for the Job well done. DEC and the thieving cartels like YALI should leave FIC continue with their good work. The report is anonymised and has no identifiable information, so what is the big cry from DEC about.
Who is Ntewewe to be quoted. Just another crook.
And that ladies and Gentlemen is the reason I detest LAZY LUNGU as all this has been brought about by his airport tarmac statements the man is no good for our country. Only thieves are against FIC as they thieve in environments where there is no accountability or transparency. Why is it that this lady has to defend FIC when we never see IG or DEC or ACC Directors defending their organisations publicly even ZESCO or ZAMTEL Directors telling us why they have been unable to record a profit.
YELLOW CARD AGAINST CORRUPTION INCOMPETENCE AND BAD GOVERNANCE
Good morning Zambia,
As concerned citizens, we will not sit and watch while the country is being plunged deep into unprecedented depths of Corruption and abuse of authority of office by a few greedy people.
This June 21st, we are calling on all concerned citizens to join us in the Yellow Card peaceful gathering to be held along the Great East Rd from 14:00hrs to 23:00hrs.
Carry a Yellow Card or put on anything Yellow as a public warning to anyone involved in the looting of public resources.
Zambia is for all of us!
Maiko Zulu
WAKE UP FROM YOUR DOCILITY ZAMBIANS!!
Name and Shame the illicit side-kicks of Perpetual Fools.
Any politiian, Permanent Secretary, Army General, Judge who steals, takes bribes and draws salary while office workers, miners, teachers, retirees go without food for days and their children deprived of basic necessities is a CRIMINAL. No mercy, such Criminals shall be Named and Shamed. Teachers shall refuse to teach children of such shameless animals. The king of the jungle shall be stripped of State House and paraded on Cairo Road, Freedom Way naked.
Zombies deserve no mercy.
Miners for HH, Miners for MMD, Miners for Kalaba, Kambwilli or whatever but not for Lungu’s minions.
@1.3 Wanzelu, DEC is compromised, it is a pawn of the ruling party. If it was not so how come Witch doctor Mahtani who stole billions through fake medical bills for his ever-dying wife, always travelling to Washington travel bills issued by Nachimuthu (his Indian secretary) and all these bills charged to Finance Bank, Professional Insurance, Chamanga Changa and Leasing Finance. One man and One ever-dying woman and this fellow is in His Finsbury House with ever-dying wife while bills are telling he is supposed to be travelling in 4 seats under four invoices for the same trip, always via South Africa, first class, over 90,000 dollars every month taken out by false pretence. Is it not money laundering?
5000 bogus accounts to bleed Malawian economy by taking forex out of Malawi through…
5000 bogus accounts to bleed Malawian economy by taking forex out of Malawi through ghost bank accounts. Barkat Ali giving him 20000 dollars per trip to Malawi and Europe, Washington DC and the same through Finance Bank Malawi, Professional Insurance, Leasing Finance and Chamanga Changa Milling.
He has been boasting that Lungu is in his pockets. Lungu directed to give 10000 hectares of land as he paid him 200,000 dollars for his overseas clients’ diesel from grass project.
Mahtani is a danger to Zambia. How easily this snake sneaks into state house irrespective of who is the president?
NAPSA and ZCCM-IH are two institutions being used by PF tinpot leaders to steal. All investments made by these two institutions during the last 6 years are stinkingly corrupt.
Under5s don’t seem to understand what raw data is. For those who live overseas and send money to zambia either through direct bank transfers or western money union that money is classified as suspicious and FIC will collect the details and record it as fraud or whatever name suits them. This is later compiled and released to the public that jayjay or wanzelu are sponsoring terrorism or defrauding the government or involved in money laundering when in fact wanzelu was just sending money to his side chik for gstrings. Thats why Dec is agaist publicizing un investigated data. I hope under5s you’ve learned one thing.
OVAL …. – Sadly this blogger misconceptions represents the majority of PF cadres out there….this blogger is as dull as they come packaged I mean he doesnt even know the difference between hectares and acres. He reminds of one other blogger on LT called Zambian Citizen who was also thick as porridge he was here justifying ambulance costing $288,000 when he has never even seen $50,000 priced ambulance.
Look at what he posted: trust me he was not joking when he posted that comment….and the presidents thrives on dull bloggers like him.
You and your YALI, what exactly do you stand for? Do you realise under governance and a judicial system like ours which has been known to be compromised and inept when it comes to fighting corruption, the additional external pressure and scrutiny that results from the FIC report being made public is what we can rely on for the law enforcement agencies to do their jobs. Else they will bow to political pressure and not investigate anyone!
Madam Chirwa, you are overzealous and its like you do not understand how public and corporate governance works. You can not distribute or inform the President while at the same time you release the information to the public. Worse still, your document you are boasting about is very raw and the organisations or people involved have not been given a chance to defend themselves. Yours is jury and judge at the same time. In your sight, they are guilty and no need to go to the courts but straight to Mukobeko maximum prison.
Blood *****!!
What are you afraid of ????
You seem to be very afraid of
“Speculation “ as you call it
If you are not thieves with lungu , there is no need to fear
Infact DEC and police should show the public , point by point how they are crossing off those investigations
If the president is implicated dont you think he would sweet it under the red carpet.
Politico
Sweep what under the carpet ?
FIC report ?
He can’t do that, it is in FICs mandate to publish its findings , the only way is to ban FIC which will result in Zambia being cutoff from the world banking network
I highly doubt she came up with the rules on how this report was to be disseminated mune and that is why the Attorney General attended the launch of this report ku Pamodzi Hotel. Are you saying your Attorney General like your president and PF, in general, are dull twits who cannot study the terms of reference of the FIC??
And how can you say they are judge and jury when no names have been mentioned in the report given to the public? What logic are you using? Which organisations or individuals have been mentioned??
Dudelove
They are not judge and jury, that is why no names have been mentioned , that why it is baffling why lungu is panicking.
The report merely pointed out financial irregularities that have been observed.
The names of people associated with those irregularities are at the banks for anyone who is interested and has the mandate to investigate
Concerned – Is another scared dull thief caught with his pants down in the spotlight.
we also need a Human Resource Intelligence Centre as well.guaranteed massive scampering will occur becoz what’s happened in the public service is criminal and constitutes crimes against humanity by individuals who pretend to love the president
@ Concerned
I agree with you. There is something terribly wrong with the FIC management and the Board. I beg to be schooled here, You can not release the document to the president and you release it to the public at the same time. In my view, You have undermined the presidency office. It goes well with the saying “WE HAVE MORE TO FEAR WITHIN THAN OUTSIDE”. Such is FIC.
But what are you afraid of ????
If there is no looting and plunder of public money there is nothing to fear , no ???
Really laughable…you agree with concerned yet you dont know what you are agreeing with ..this is what is called ignorance on display right here. Who told you that the President receives the same report as the public?
Leave the lady alone!
She has not done anything outside FIC mandate!
What is DEC record in fighting money laundering?
The thieves are ganging up against her, starting with the chief himself. DEC should worry about about its mandate. We all know DEC and ACC are discredited with planting drugs on victims and the ACC only act on non politically connected citizens. Why and how did Lungu sign the FIC act into law?? He never thought it was going to catch up with him and bit him on his back knowing that he is corrupt himself or he expected her to look else where. That’s the problem with Lungu and his bunch of friends, they would gladly share K6.1B, but make alot of noise about an investor who has fallen on hard times and cant meet his obligations. What assurance do we have that they are going to do any better with the sales Tax???? There is nothing to show they have any will or capacity. Bapompwe aba!!! Go…
DEC s record is just abysmal!
This what happens when we vote or appoint fraudsters like LAZY LUNGU to lead a party ….I mean we have the whole Head of State attacking a constitutional body created by an act of Parliament ‘‘the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, No. 46 of 2010.’’ …its just unbelievable, now every Hyena in the land wants a bite…total LACK OF LEADERSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who said it was realised same time to the President and public?
Please focus on what the report says and note the organisation is not an investigation wing!
Spot on buddy!!
Zambians, let us open our eyes!
The Pep criminals in FIC reports have regrouped to use compromised DEC and a few “Pep” NGOs to discredit FIC!
We should not allow what happened to the Post Newspapers to happen to FIC or we can forget about Good Governance! PF hates those institutions that expose their wrongs!
As for DEC, what have you done so far about abuse of office connected to the Swaziland Mansion Donation?
Are you uncomfortable with FIC because they have exposed your incompetence and compromised stand when tackling high profile cases?
Very true ,
As they say , only the guilty are afraid
So YALI wants FIC to give the report to DEC so that they sit on it? Besides I thought the Attorney General attends these functions, why doesn’t he advise FIC to zip their mouths?
What are people afraid of ???
We live in a so called democratic country and Zambians can make up their minds if the FIC report is speculation…..
Better still why doesn’t lungu address a free press and tell us and the nation where he stands instead of using DEC and that silly YALI to attack FIC that should be a deterrent to looting ????
Is Fic a whistle blower?
Lungu what evidence do you want??? You hypocrite?? ACC and DEC show us your mantle and act, you have a file on Amos Chanda, it’s time to revisit his cases. You can’t allow him to keep ranting and shading other people. If you fail to do it, then you just prove you are the captured lot.
What FIC released if information gathered from banks …….information DEC and lungu should have already.
In a normal sitting DEC should be saying we have that info already and investigations are underway , with lungu saying law enforcement are on top of things and we expect results to be seen by the public
Why all the hysteria by lungu and DEC ???
It is as if lungu is already guilty
Ulichipuba iwe old skool, if you do not pay tax and are a stup!d depndant sit the phuck down and shut the phuck up. !d!ot
Sorry Spaka not meant for here this reply.
Yes dudelove
Full steam ahead, there will be no hiding places for the looters.
Godamit …….people are dying in Zambia , kids can’t afford school and all they think of is getting rich
Instead of lungu going into meltdown with his incoherent
“ mfwiti mfwiti “
rant on an airport runway, lungu should be seen to be on the side of FIC , which is a deterrent to looting.
Now even the resident LT PF rats are attacking FIC ??
What are you afraid of ?????
T ‘ funseko , kodee muyopa chani ???
Ya kosa bolla Benangu ku state house
So you are resident in Zambia, you watch the same tv like. No wonder you have so much bitterness and you have time to vent it.
Old corrupt school
How can I not be bitter when billions are being stolen while people are not getting paid, universities closed, no medicines for luck of money ????
Ulichipuba iwe old skool, if you do not pay tax and are a stup!d depndant sit the phuck down and shut the phuck up. !d!ot
ACC & DEC kuwayawayafye, it is just names they are incompetence in their duties, that’s why Chishimba Kambwili call them bapompwe !!!!
F. I. C is resolute, it’s an Act of Parliament and it’s jurisdictions and mandate are enshrined in the Supreme law of the land. So DEC, YALI, Chilufya Tayali, go to hell
INDEED, IS FIC A WHISTLEBLOWER OR A MERE FINANCIAL INVESTIGATIVE WING.
The preamble of that act of parliament seems to indicate that they have no teeth and are subservient to LEAs such as DEC and ACC.
If DEC and ACC don’t investigate don’t you think FIC’s report is a miss, waste of time and remains speculative?
If FIC doesn’t listen to LEAs then theirs is a lonely fruitless walk in a park of financial criminals. Its only through LEAs that criminals will be brought to book i.e charged and prosecuted in the courts of law. So if FIC doesn’t listen to ECL,they must heed LEA’s directive.
Thorn
That is up to lungu if the FIC report is a fruitless walk in the park. The public will judge.
Let lungus GRZ make their osition clear…….are they for investigations or are not ?
The electorate will be the judge.
We have thieves in govt who don’t give a toss about the future of the country, I do not blame Lungu at all, I blame the people who parachuted him into that slot where he deals with trillions of kwacha as opposed to the K10,000 he stole from his Client.
FIC is statutory. From my reading they have reported on transactions that HAPPENED. No one is being defamed because names are not there. For those multitudes of clueless research is important before we start inserting untruths like — awe mwe. So let’s continue abiding by international norms and national accountability. A sogoleli tapapata osakatako ku lamulo. Let it continue to take it’s course even long after you are gone.
Welcome FIC ! Go ahead with us Zambians .No YALI the fontinis brother pf.
All sensible Zambians must rally behind this God Sent Woman who is reporting without fear or favour, unsettling this PF bunch of hardcore criminals. The true extent of looting will only be known once Lungu is removed from power.
What is the definition of raw data? If FIC says so much was lost in tax evasion, what is raw about this information? What is raw about law firms helping thieves clean their stolen money? Names not mentioned doesn’t mean FIC doesn’t know these names.Its the responsibility of the same DEC and ACC to name these criminals. DEC you are failing this nation. Instead of picking it from where FIC stops you start attacking FIC. This is Shameful. Mr Ntewewe should be consistent in his comments. Corruption has sent a lot of lives to their early graves. Many Zambians are suffering because of civil servants and government officials stealing money meant to uplift people’s lives.
Speculation means saying something without firm evidence. Now if FIC says so much money was spent by a government ministry or agency but goods where not delivered. What is speculative about this statement? The fact that they have withheld the name of the government ministry or officials it becomes speculative? DEC and Mr Ntewewe must get serious with life. No matter how much I like someone if he or she is blocking those who want to expose criminals, I take that person as an enemy of the progress of Zambia. Let DEC and ACC follow up those issues in FIC report and come and prove item by item that FIC was speculating instead of intimidating FIC.
FIC is also statutory body It has the mandate to report dubious financial transactions to ACC, to DEC, and to Zambia Police. DEC has its own mandate. DEC must not disparage or undermine FIC. This kind interference must stop in order for dubious financial transactions to be brought under control.There has never been a conflict between FIC and DEC. If DEC does not like FIC, then that is very strange. DEC must respect and investigate what FIC has identified as dubious cash transactions. The two entities must be separated to avoid conniving and cover up. Separation of FIC from DEC is a fundamental principle of organization in the fight against corruption, fraud, money-laundering and terrorism financing.
It is lungu trying to use state bodies he has corrupted to muzzle and silence FIC ……
In justifying publication of the FIC Trends Report, the FIC Director General seems to be relying on Section 5.(2)(e) of the FIC(Amendment)Act of 2016 as a function of the FIC which states that”educate the public and reporting entities of their obligations and inform them of measures to detect,prevent and deter money laundering and financing of terrorism or proliferation”.
Can this be interpreted as giving mandate for public disclosure or is it another lacuna?
The question I would like to us is this: WHO IS YALI ACCOUNTABLE TO? If it is only accountable to itself, I would strongly advise YALI to stop dabbling in the work of key and critical state institutions.
FIC is in fact not doing its job as per its mandate. It shall be sharing this information with foreign agencies, present its report to the speaker of national assembly, name and shame the economic sabotagers and work towards getting them all locked up.
This YALI Ntewewe, must be a trib.al.
FIC Mary Chirwa, keep up the good work, ifnore trib.als!
This YALI Ntewewe, must be a trib.al.
FIC Mary Chirwa, keep up the good work, ignore the trib.als!
FIC has the bank names, law firm names and actual transactions. If you ‘refine’ these, actual human names will appear behind the transactions. FIC has presented the ‘raw’ form and is saying to the investigative wings, come and get the real data and take action. That is the part ECL, DEC, ACC etc. are reluctant to be involved in – because of what will be unveiled.
When was FIC established? Just asking because at one time some individuals and companies were allowed access to large amounts of cash from public institution as loans which up to now have not been repaid
Fyonse fi mulelandapo mwebena Zambia uwalenga ni Lungu. He has caused all the financial problems and looting of the economy in this country. Just when he announced uobomba mwibala at a pf dinner dance in Kitwe where they feasted on stollen money and looting of mukula tree, things are not the same in the country he opened the Pandora of looting gvt coffers
“Mr. Ntewewe said the public is certainly not one of the entities to whom such information should be disseminated, not even in redacted form.”
The public IS CERTAINLY one of the entities to whom such information should be disseminated. Corruption isn’t corruption unless it involves PUBLIC FUNDS! WE ARE THE PUBLIC. We are like board members in this company we call Zambia.
Yes this information must be released to the public but of what use is the intelligence information if it is untimely released and warns the criminal(s) before the loose ends of the information are tied? This is why lay men lose good cases in court because of lack of understanding of how the law works. “ to be for warned is to for armed” may be the law needs to specify the time or period by which the report must be released to the public after it has been served to the relevant bodies such as the DEC, police, ZRA and the executive wing (President) or parliamentary committee on crime etc. if they have not concluded their job in say one month then the report is released raw to the public. After all, the above bodies are accountable to the public. The public will then question why the action…
Why the action has not been taken. we should as a public learn to read our Lea that governs various organs. If we don’t then we will hear these things through the ears of some disgruntled opposition politicians whose interest is state house and not the welfare of our great nation.