MOF CARTEL SHARES K500M…but sources wonder why ACC hasn’t prosecuted culprits
By Ernest Chanda
NEW information has emerged which reveals that about K533 million was looted from the Ministry of Finance, not K100 million as earlier reported in August 2022.
On August 24, 2022, The Mast published a story where a Transparency International – Zambia investigation revealed that a cartel at Ministry of Finance (MoF) siphoned money amounting to K100 million between 2019 and 2021 using fictitious events to draw allowances.
Collaborated evidence and information from whistleblowers within the ministry showed various names of officers in the Ministry of Finance.
Names withheld had engaged in an intricate network of fictitious and organised activities.
According to the evidence this loot seemed to be spreading tentacles to strategic ministries, commissions, and agencies.
In one case, “officer 1”, described as Master for purposes of safeguarding investigations, received a total of K5,870,914.53 in gratuity payment between 2019 and 2020.
Master also received K1,086,311.18 in fictitious sitting allowances.
Another officer, or officer 2, also known as Server, received K1,222,938.99 while officer 3, also known as Drone, received K1,251,698.92.
In another instance, officer 4 and Officer 5, also known as Dark Horse and Spanner, received K580,179.01 and K599,039.94 respectively, between 1st January 2021 and 30th June 2021.
In 2020, the Anti-Corruption Commission restricted the bank account of one of the lead MoF senior audit team members over a bribe which he had declared to the State.
This restriction expired in early 2022 but ACC have been reluctant to arrest the officer who offered the bribe to the MoF senior officer.
A source close to the investigation revealed that members of the public around July 2022 complained that ACC was reluctant to prosecute the then Ministry of General Education, now Education’s grand corruption.
Upon receiving this complaint, former ACC director general Gilbert Phiri reinstated the restriction of the named amount of the bribe on one of the investigation team members’ bank account
The named MoF forensic audit department investigator was offered this bribe to falsify a special internal audit investigations report for grand corruption and money laundering at Ministry of General Education.
This bribe was reported and sources have disclosed that this action of reporting to ACC annoyed the MoF senior management who took action to hound the officer out of the government.
The genesis of the MoF scandal is in 2019 when controller of internal audit Joyce Sundano Phiri received intelligence information that there was large scale money laundering at the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of General Education (MOGE).
She constituted a team of forensic internal auditors to carry out an investigation on the fraud and corruption.
This investigation later connected to the MoF where senior staff looted monies from the treasury from the period 2019 to August 2021 just prior to the August 12, 2021 general election.
According to another source these monies pertained to allowances for fictitious events such as sitting allowances in parliamentary committees, inspection of government projects, daily subsistence allowances, and some payments of gratuity.
A source revealed that these activities of paying fictitious allowances at MoF have been going on from the early 1990s.
Another source close to the investigation revealed that MoF in May 2022 initiated recoveries of some of the fictitious allowances to hoodwink the investigators.
Furthermore, the MoF has only effected such deductions from a few members of staff in one department, leaving out staff from other departments.
It has also come to The Mast’s attention that the affected staff have not even been told or written to about why the amounts are being recovered.
Another source revealed that despite MoF instituting those deductions to confuse the investigators, the amounts involved are too huge to be recovered.
The source explained that K533 million cannot be recovered via payroll.
Another source revealed that ACC restricted K4 million from some of the seven senior MoF staff. These monies were sitting in treasury bills and ordinary bank savings accounts.
Members of the public have expressed serious concern on how the ACC has been conducting their investigations over the MoF that despite the investigations being conducted and the commission seizing assets from the suspects, the affected members of staff have been normally reporting for work contrary to the civil service terms and conditions of service and disciplinary and grievance code.
They also wonder why the ACC has not arrested the culprits.
“Could it be that some members of the ACC have been oiled to frustrate the investigation? Why hasn’t the Commission arrested the culprits amidst overwhelming evidence? This is not the ACC we know. What has become of this institution? Isn’t this one of the cases they could have easily prosecuted and secured convictions?” asked one source.
According to the civil service disciplinary code, an officer who is suspected of misappropriating public funds should be subjected to mandatory suspension.
