…CHRA says anti-graft watchdog not doing enough on corruption
Emmanuel Chitsika
Months after allegations of corruption were raised against Bikita Rural District Council (RDC) by residents following the purchase of six top-of-the range vehicles for Head of Departments through a loan facility earlier this year, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Corruption (ZACC) is yet to act towards the matter.
ZACC spokesperson John Makamure indicated that there are some formalities that need to be regularized before an investigation is launched and they are yet to deploy a team to do so.
“When it comes to public entities like local authorities in this case, we first carry out what we call a systems and compliance review in a comprehensive manner before any investigation is launched. The compliance review is when we look into an issue for the purpose of determining if ever there are issues of criminal nature before our investigations team steps in.
“The team is yet to be deployed to carry out the review after which if we identify any case that requires investigation, then we would do that,” said Makamure.
However, quizzed on the duration or timeframe after which the review would be completed, Makamure said that depends on a number of factors.
“It depends on a number of issues that is availability of necessary documents, cooperation of concerned parties as well as the nature of the matter we may come across.
“As such, there is no specific timeframe because we need to check on information made available on time and that which we require and check if there are any issues that we come across. Our compliance reviews are based on information supplied usually by whistleblowers like you are doing right now. We have procedures that we follow before deploying our teams,” added Makamure.
Bikita RDC irked residents after purchasing Toyota Hilux GD6 vehicles for HODs before privatizing the registration plates after which resident associations like Bikita Residents and Ratepayers Association (BIRRA) as well as business community wrote petition letters to parent ministry, ministry of provincial affairs and devolution among other stakeholders.
Meanwhile, Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) programmes officer Reuben Akili said they feel ZACC is not doing enough to combat graft in the country as evidenced by the manner in which the Pomona dumpsite (Harare) deal and of late the fire tenders are concerned.
“As CHRA, we envisaged or anticipated ZACC to intervene on the issue of the Pomona deal in which they should have intervened and so is the fire tender purchase issue. The moment tender procedures are flouted, that raises the red flag or indicator that corruption is there.
“What we have seen is that ZACC has been chasing cross border traders when we expected them to shift focus towards high profile corruption cases. While we do not condone cross border corruption, there are other critical cases of corruption taking place in local authorities in relation to public funds and we expect them to act,” said Akili.
He also likened the modus operandi of ZACC to a web that catches small animals while bigger ones are let on the loose.
“However, ZACC seems to be focusing on small fish looking at issues around graft which is so worrying to say the least. As CHRA, we expect ZACC to escalate its campaign and be able to start the attack on big fish behind corruption that is not only prejudicing revenue but also affecting service delivery to residents.
“I t seems their approach is low profile targeting the weaker of the weakest which I think will not provide solution to corruption,” he added.
Harare City Council is embroiled in a bitter wrangle with government following the selling of the city’s dumpsite to a company called Geogenix under unclear circumstances and opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) councillors are fronting calls to have the arrangement reversed as it bleeds the local authority.
The fire tenders issue is on the directive from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works for all local authorities to submit applications for fire tenders (to be bought from Belarus) with payments to be deducted from their devolution fund allocations.
The prices pegged at US$ 400 000 are also alleged to have been inflated by the ministry.
