By Nelson Zulu
FORMER Defense Minister George Mpombo has lashed out at the UPND led government’s commitment in the fight against corruption.
Commenting on various revelation of corruption involving UPND officials, ministers’ associates and relatives, Dr. Mpombo said so far, the UPND government has fed Zambians with uncoordinated approach to the fight against corruption.
He said the fight of graft in the New Dawn government has not produced tangible results six months since being voted into office.
Dr. Mpombo has observed that so far, Zambians feel that the fight against corruption is a fish expedition by the New Dawn administration targeted at former government officials in the PF regime.
“So far, the contributing factor to this confusion is that the fight against corruption has not produced tangible results, people want to see the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), DEC, Zambia Police move in and the following day things start happening in the courts of law. Because of this kind of poor coordination in the fight against corruption people think that it is a fishing expedition by the UPND government against the PF,” he noted.
He said although the intention seems to be good, Zambians want an aggressive approach to fighting corruption because of its colossal damage it has done to the economy and the people.
“The intention is good, people want to have an aggressive fight against corruption because of the colossal damage corruption does to the economy and the people, so people were expecting that under the New Dawn government the corruption or breeze crag against corruption will result into some earth moving developments. So far, we are being fed on a cocktail, a cocktail of uncoordinated activities. What I am saying is that so far, we have not seen any robust fight against corruption which can give the people of Zambia any confidence that the New Dawn is fighting corruption. What we have at the moment is more less some shambolic piece of work in-terms of the fight against corruption,” observed Dr. Mpombo.
Dr. Mbombo has since warned that the approach the UPND has taken in the fight against corruption so far, risks losing public support and confidence in the manner they are doing things.
He said reducing the corruption fight to searching homes, writing warn and caution statements and nothing done to take such cases before the courts of law is circus.
“But most importantly the fights against corruption under the New Dawn administration risks losing public support in the manner they are doing things. It has been reduced to raiding people’s home, signing of warn and caution statements and then after that nothing happens, six months of the UPND in government we should be talking about some tangible developments,” he said.
And Dr. Mpombo has also supported calls by stakeholders to have officers at ACC, Zambia Police, DEC and other investigative wings probed for corruption, money laundering and being in procession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
He said there should not be any sacred cow in the fight against financial crimes, corruption and other white-collar syndicates.
Dr. Mpombo said Zambians should know that corruption investigation has become a lucrative business given the nature of the situation.
He cited the officers under the Task Force on Corruption set by late President Levy Mwanawasa that they got rich as they benefited financially.
“You know corruption investigation is lucrative business given the nature of the situation, you saw what happened with the Task Force on Corruption, the situation developed where investigators somehow benefited more financially from the corruption fight. So no one is and should be a sacred cow and cameras must zoom in and run satellites on people involved, I mean people in those offices must inspire confidence in the people when it comes to the fight against corruption, they must know that people who are involved leading the battle against corruption are beyond reproach somehow. So, there is nothing sinister in the suggestion that officers at ACC, DEC and Zambia Police be investigated for corruption, money laundering and acquiring property suspected to be proceeds of crime among other white-collar crimes,” said Dr. Mpombo.