Action aid has said the awarding of a $30 million contract to two companies linked to Prominent influential persons, using forged documents as revealed in the FIC report was pure criminality and shows how weak governance systems were in the previous government.
Action Aid Country director, Nalucha Nganga Ziba has therefore called for the strengthening of the Public Procurement Act of 2020 in the area of justifications for single sourcing and prosecution of perpetrators of public procurement related corruption.She said its full implementation is key in mitigating some of the public procurement corruption techniques.
Below is the Full Press Release
The revelation of the FIC report where two companies linked to Prominent Influential Persons won $30 million using forged document was deliberate, pure criminality and shows how weak our governance systems are and/or were especially under the previous regime. It is also clear demonstration that public procurement is one of the highly exposed government activity to corruption and hence the need to immediately address this problem with the urgency it deserves by undertaking vigorous legal and policy reforms as well as enhancing prosecution of the perpetrators of corruption.
Last year the government amended the Public Procurement Act whose operationalization commenced this year on 16th April, 2021 as per Statutory Instrument No. 26 of 2021 issued by the then Ministry Finance. The amended Public Procurement Act provides for
the mitigation of some of the techniques used by perpetrators of corruption in public procurement related transactions.
For example Section 12 of the new Act provides for benchmarking of prices for common use supplies in subsection (2) and the undertaking of a price reasonableness analysis for items not covered in the quarterly market price index in subsection (4). This provision mitigates the problem of over pricing and consequently assuring of value for money in public procurement. Furthermore the Act in section 19 generally provides for the mitigation of Corrupt, coercive, obstructive, collusive or fraudulent practice and conflict of interest. However, Section 19 is only limited to technocrats in government institution and does not adequately address the influence of Prominent Influential Persons like cabinet ministers.
In section 16 the Act also provides for E-procurement which increase transparency and facilitate access to public tenders as in the cited procurement. The e-procurement simplifies information exchange and transactions through streamlined online communication systems. It facilitates internal anti-corruption controls making it easier to detect integrity breaches.
We are, therefore, of the view that though the Public Procurement Act of 2020 may still need strengthening in the area of justifications and/or reasons for single sourcing and prosecution of perpetrators of public procurement related corruption as suggested by most stakeholders even before it was enacted, its full implementation is key in mitigating some of the public procurement corruption techniques as in the cited case.
We also except the new government under their zero tolerance to corruption policy to show political will and effectively implement the Public Procurement Act and mitigate public procurement related corruption as indicated in the FIC typology report.
Finally, we also expect the law enforcement agencies to move in quickly, investigate and prosecute such kind of corrupt activities which are very clear.
Nalucha Nganga Ziba
Country Director – ActionA
Just look at the services or goods provided……probably none existent.
Lungu and his gang were all in on this corruption……
If HEHHs GRZ does not move in to address these allegations , UPND , you will be in trouble…..
Our former humble President is innocent, cleaner and more whiter than KK’s Handkerchief.
Who are the ‘Prominent Influential Persons’?
I think if HH will not pursue some of this criminality and recover the money in the name of ‘reconciliation’ and ‘unity’ then he will be regarded as a failure. You can’t protect criminality as the Zambian people would at least want to recover some of the loot. Yes spare the some of them jailtime but at least recover the stolen money. Let law enforcement if they are truly now independent investigate and recover some stolen resources.
I wish these people could bring up these cases after securing arrests not just blowing hot air. We are tired with the kachepa syndrome. Do your work, complete the job and then report to the media atase.
How did Lungu superintend on Country public resources for all these years. He was so uncaring and weaker than a scare crow.
We look forward to this corruption mantra leading to actual arrests and prosecutions. As it is, it appears it’s just people looking to appear relevant and keep their positions. You spoil people’s reputation by crying corruption with nothing to show for it. We are tired of talking, we just want to hear about action now, no more excuses. Show us something Iwe!
STUFF RECONCILIATION
Just yapping all the time …..mfwiti!!! mfwiti !! Why not take them to courts and prove your allegations?
Theirs complete silence from the pf noise makers here. They ignore the obvious decay in their encampment and only want to heavily criticize a 3 week old presidency. Its time for accountability
Our democracy is now mature; let’s strengthen institutions that support democracy so they are fully independent of government interference just like the judiciary and the parliament.
Zamtrop zamtrop zamtrop, no one was convicted. RB is corrupt, his children corrupt, his Ministers corrupt(one of them the current finance minister), no one was convicted. Pf is corrupt, they have been stealing since they entered office, we may end up with same results. Please let the FIC give full details to ACC and police so that we don’t have evidence disappearing thereafter end up with same old results.
Talk talk doesn’t mean anything we want action you should first have facts as evidence for your case.
We have heard this before and nothing happened , now you have another thief in state house do you think he will do anything , no a big No! He has insurmountable cases concerning his unexplained wealth.
All he will say is no witch-hunting.
Why appoint 15 guys as ministers instead of 15 women?
Rest assured that the New Dawn Administration will recover all. Watch the space.
As reporters it is your duty to question who these prominent people are and inform your readership. We depend on you. Thanks.
When we said those were 7 lazy lungu wasted years you thought it was a joke…yet these people defaulted on a $42m EUROBOND coupon…really corrupt people they were…please follow up on them and recoup all the funds!!
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Findlay and his newly created Pharmaceutical company and expired medicines were supplied to MOH…Zuma had the Guptas and Lazy Lungu had Findlay ruthless scumbags
Kaizer Zulu are you there. Wake up from your dream prison is coming your way.
Did you ever expect this
All this data is there, but witness accounts are necessary to corroborate and pin down the perpetrators. If this fight will have to be objective and thorough, I would encourage the UPND not to shy from using professionals who we all know do not work at DEC, ACC or FIC.