ACC DECISION TO ALLOW FORMER PS KEEP K37M ANGERS CSOs
THE Consortium of 11 Civil Society Organisations on Governance has questioned how over K37 million of suspected illicit funds can be left in the hands of an accused person.
And the consortium has expressed deep concern and outrage at recent revelations that expose alarming weaknesses in Zambia’s fight against corruption.
On Monday, Daily Revelation published ran a lead story where former Anti-Corruption Commission Director General Thom Trevor Shamakamba told the Ndola High Court that former Foreign Affairs permanent secretary in the Edgar Lungu’s administration, Dr Ronald Simwinga, was asked to forfeit only K23 million “unexplained” funds in his bank account because the commission had decided to turn him into one of the key witnesses in a prominent case before the economic and Financial Crimes Court in Lusaka.
This is in a case where Shamakamba has sued, for libel, Daily Revelation Editor-In-Chief Patson Chilemba, former ACC board member Dr O’Brien Kaaba and Daily Standard Multimedia as first, second and third defendants respectively, demanding US$500 compensation for alleged damages to his personal and professional reputations.
Reacting to Shamakamba’s submission in court, consortium chairperson Isaac Mwanza stated stated that the revelations were disturbing.
“Equally disturbing is the disclosure by the former Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission that an accused person in a corruption case, Dr. Ronald Simwinga, was allowed by the Commission to surrender only K23 million out of a suspected K60 million in exchange for becoming a state witness,” Mwanza stated. “This decision sets a dangerous and unjust precedent”.
Daily Revelation