Anti-corruption body discredited

via Anti-corruption body discredited – The Zimbabwean 9 July 2015

The Anti-Corruption Commission of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) is clearly not fit to be probing corruption, if we go by the latest report on state enterprises and parastatals by the Auditor General. The report covering 2014 reveals that the commission was involved in shady deals in the acquisition of a housing facility in Mount Pleasant, Harare.

According to the AG, the commission failed to fully account in its financial records for funds and assets relating to the purchase of the new building. Nor could it provide documentation on how the facility was utilised. Enquiries with the estate agent involved in the purchase of the building showed that it cost $1,2 million instead of the $1,68 million the ACCZ claimed.

As a result, the commission and government were prejudiced of $480,000! Furthermore, despite the purchase being concluded, the building was not registered in ACCZ’s name. In fact, the commission used a shelf company under mysterious circumstances, indicating a clear intention by the secretariat to defraud the commission and the government. The chief executive officer, Ngonidzashe Gumbo, was convicted of fraud on this matter.

It is disturbing that the head of the very unit that is supposed to investigate graft and crime within public enterprises is involved in criminal activities. That puts a big dent in the ACCZ’s legitimacy and it will be hard for Zimbabweans to trust it from now on.

For us, the major problem is the partisan nature in which people are chosen to head public bodies. Clearly, those people are appointed not on the basis of their reputation or track record. Instead, the appointments are made on the basis of cronyism and the ability of those who are appointed to protect the interests of their fellow fat cats. If the selection of the CEO was professionally done, there is no way a person with such criminal tendencies could have been put at the helm of the commission.

As it stands, the anti-graft body has been dogged by a legitimacy crisis for a long time. Less than a decade ago, thanks to leaked documents availed to us, the ACCZ received money from Gideon Gono, then Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at a time when it was investigating him. That, surely, was bribery. The impartiality of the commissioners was compromised the very moment they accepted Gono’s money.

Over the years there have been other reports of secretariat members and commissioners being involved in shady deals. Needless to say, the commission has failed to make meaningful investigations from the time it was set up. Honestly, Zimbabwe does not need such a discredited body to preside over corruption. We call on the authorities to revisit the selection of commissioners and the appointment of members of the secretariat. This must be done in an impartial and professional manner, devoid of political manipulation.