Benhilda Magomo
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) declares criminal abuse of duty and fraud as the leading crimes.
According to the ZACC annual report, of the 684 reports received by the commission, 332(48, 50 %) were about criminal abuse of duty and 247 (36, 10%) fraud.
The reported cases included theft or theft of property, which accounted for 29, money laundering 21, bribery 11, forgery 9 (nine), extortion 6 (six), tax evasion 6, smuggling 4 (four), and 3(three) externalization cases.
ZACC said the reported crimes mostly concentrated in local authorities and rural district councils where the compliance teams had not conducted any reviews.
‘’684,335 were against public officials representing 68,4 % of the total reports received, 175 were against officials or entities in the private sector representing 25,58% of the total and 66 were against land barons representing 9,64 of the total’’.
In the latest Auditor General’s report Rhea Kujinga for the same period, the auditor general highlighted the high extent of graft in public offices which have continued to bleed the treasury.
In addition to 335 complaints received against public officials, 225 were against public officials in various government ministries and 80 were against public officials in local authorities and parastatals.
In her report on SOE’s Acting Auditor-General report for the year ended December 31, 2022, acting reported an increase in the number of issues relating to the non-delivery of goods in the procurement process.
‘’The commission handled 16 complaints against elected officials, chiefs, headmen and village heads’’, according to the report.
The commission also said that four cases relating to public officials in government were mostly against those in Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, mines and mining Development, and Local Government and public works ministries.
ZACC also said that 46 of the complaints were against officials from the Land ministry, particularly the land departments.
‘’These corrupt tendencies were worsened by the emergence of land barons as most of the allegations relate to the illegal sale of land or residential stands’’.
Furthermore, the demographic gender analysis shows that 338 offenders were males, 84 were females and 262 were not specified. In essence, 65, 5% of the total accused persons were male.
To date, ZACC confirmed the arrest of Nyaminyami Rural District Council, chief executive officer, Mr. Cletus Gwabva Matingwina on allegations of criminal abuse of duty.
The commission stated that Matingwina is accused of disqualifying winning bidders replacing them with those he favoured.
Also, Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital, Provincial Medical Superintendent, Dr Collet John Mawire was arrested by ZACC for criminal abuse of duty as a public officer.
Matingwina sought to procure expandable machines that were way above the required threshold.
‘’For the prevention of corruption, the commission’s anti-corruption drive to introduce several pro-active initiatives to prevent expenditure driven corruption in public entities and promote accountability in public entities’’.
