THE ANTICORRUPTION COMMISSION, ZAMBIA

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THE ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION, ZAMBIA

• Anti-corruption initiatives and lessons learnt
• Stephen Emasu
• FIMANET member

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Contents

• Introduction
• The history of corruption
• Performance of the Anti-Corruption Commissions
• Lessons learnt

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Introduction

• Zambia is a landlocked country with a population
  of 10.8 million people
• Became independent in 1964 from the British rule
• Low life expectancy of between 32-33 years
• GNI per capita as low as US 340
• Highly indebted
• Copper still main FX earner

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History of corruption

• Categories of corruption
• Phases of corruption
• Corruption Perception Indices

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Categories of corruption

• Political corruption-elections based political
  patronage
• Grand corruption-involving large amounts and
  bureaucrats-hence bureaucratic corruption
• Petty corruption-most visible, pervasive and
  hurts ordinary citizenry

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Phases of corruption

• Corruption is a contextual issue evolves over
  time
• Corruption in Zambia evolved over two decades in
  three phases since independence in 1964
• Phase 1 from 1964 to 1970s
• Phase 2 from 1970s to 1990
• Phase 3 from 1991 to-date

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Phase 1 from 1964 1970s

• Period of First Republic
• The economy was strong as copper prices were
  still good
• Opposition parties were strong
• Corruption was unheard of
• Corruption treated like any other petty offence
  under the penal code and
• Political leadership strongly against corruption

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Phase 2 from 1970s to 1990

• Period when Zambia was a one- party state
• Copper prices collapsed
• Increasing debt burden, high inflation, budget
  deficits, poor economic growth recordedand
• Government adopted socialist tendencies in the
  management of the economy.
• Shortages of basic needs felt, and increasing
  incidents of corruption recorded.

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Phase 2 response Leadership Code

• Introduced Leadership Code in 1973 and applied to
  all public leaders in UNIP public offices
• Leadership Code Committee reported to the
  President and concerned with declarations
• The Code had no investigative prosecution
  powers hence it was ineffective.
• Similarly, the little known and an ineffective
  Special Investigation Team on Economy and Trade
  SITET was established.

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Phase 2response The Corrupt Practices Act.

• Due to increasing reported cases of corruption,
  the Corrupt Practices Act enacted in 1980
  definition of corruption broadened
• An Anti-Corruption Commission was established
  ACC 1, with a Director-General appointed by and
  reported to the President and
• Had powers to investigate and prosecute through
  the traditional judiciary

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Phase 3 from 1991- 2004

• Period coincides with the Chiluba ten year
  period, under MMD
• Best remembered for the worst corruption Zambia
  has experienced
• Private accumulation of wealth by public leaders
  allowed
• Increased political corruption recorded
• Both petty bureaucratic corruption became
  pervasive

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Phase 3 response new legislations enacted

• Parliamentary Ministerial Code of Conduct Act
  enacted in 1994
• Anti-Corruption Commission Act enacted in 1996
  repealed one of 1980
• Other corruption related legislations enacted
• But there was no political will to combat
  corruption under Chiluba regime!
• The current government set up Task Force on
  Economic Plunder

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Performance of Anti-Corruption Commission

• The Anti-Corruption Commission of 1980
• The Anti-Corruption Commission of 1996
• The Task Force on Economic Plunder

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Performance

• The first ACC did not make significant progress
• The second ACC has not registered significant
  impact as evidence by poor CPI results and
• The Task Force on Economic Plunder still
  struggling?

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Performance CPI results
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Lessons for the future

• Introduction
• A Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Strategy required
  time
• Elements of the Strategy

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Introduction to the Strategy

• Creation of independent anticorruption agency and
  other watchdog agencies is a demonstration that
  NIS not working
• Effective NIS deters growth of pervasive
  corruption
• Hence the need for a Comprehensive
  Anti-Corruption Strategy to deal with reforms.

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Anti-Corruption Agency

• Most anticorruption agencies are constructed to
  deal with
• Public education awareness
• Prevention and
• Investigation/prosecution
• They do not reduce opportunities for corruption
  and payoffs.

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Key areas of a Comprehensive Anti- Corruption
Strategy

• Building a competitive political environment
• Reforming and strengthening checks and balances
  on the Executive
• Building a competitive private sector
• Empowering the civil society
• Reforming the Public Sector

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Competitive political environment

• Weak political environment breeds political
  corruption, which cascades to other organs of
  the state the private sector
• Reforms are needed to develop a competitive
  political environment in a peaceful manner

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Reforming strengthening checks and balances on
the Executive

• The Executive has enormous powers and excessive
  power can degenerate into pervasive corruption.
• Executive power should be controlled
  accountable
• All organs of the state should become more
  transparent accountable timeously

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Building a competitive private sector

• Corruption is no longer a public sector issue as
  involves the private sector as well. Corruption
  in one sector feeds into the other and vise
  versa.
• Competitive and vibrant private sector helps to
  build strong foundations for combating corruption.

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Empowering the civil societies

• Civil Society has a critical and independent
  voice in the fight against corruption, and should
  be empowered.

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Reforming the Public Sector

• The Public Sector requires urgent reforms to
  change the focus of government, make the public
  sector effective, efficient, transparent,
  accountable and free from political patronage.
  Piecemeal and uncoordinated reforms in the public
  sector is not satisfactory.