By Merlyn Mwanza
The Anti-Corruption Commission has dismissed as false assertions that the K65 million forfeited from Faith Musonda has been misappropriated.
Addressing a media briefing today, ACC board chairperson Musa Mwenye said the commission handed over a cheque for K65,333,046 to Finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane with the money moved from the ACC account at the Bank of Zambia to the Ministry of Finance on March 03, 2022, saying it was therefore not true that the money was misappropriated by ACC.
He blamed sections of the media for publishing what he described as “unconfirmed documents” when they attended the handover of the money from the ACC and that there was no attempt to verify the information with ACC, BOZ and MOF.
Mwenye, however, noted that the ACC was open to accountability but not to unwarranted criticism based on what he described as innuendo.
“Ladies and gentlemen, corruption fights back and it does so viciously and we must not give in to the machinations of those who wish to weaken the Anti-Corruption Commission and the fight against corruption,” Mwenye said.
He claimed that the ACC only became aware of the management letter carrying the allegations of misappropriation on social media and on the News Diggers and was not aware of its authenticity, but hoped that the same letter was not leaked from the Auditor General’s office without being availed to ACC first.
“The history of this matter and the surrounding circumstances raise great cause for concern. Ladies and gentlemen, you may wish to know that the investigation at Ministry of finance started in November 2020, long before this board was appointed. Following investigations, the two deputy auditor generals and the auditor general were arrested on 1st March 2023, 2nd March 2023 and 9th March 2023 respectively. The Auditor General was interviewed on the 10th of February 2023. On the 3rd of March 2023, we received a formal request for information from the auditor general’s office in furtherance of an audit. The audit was therefore only initiated after the interrogation and later arrest of the top officials in the Auditor generals office. We have every confidence in the office of the Auditor general which is a key institution of Government,” Mwenye said. “We support the work of the auditor general and we would not want to see a day when that important institution, will be deployed to fight personal legal battles of any of its officers.Ladies and gentlemen, please bear with us. We will not address the document that is circulating on social media but suffice to say that it contains a lot of inaccuracies and details that appear tailored to deliberately embarrass the institution. For example, at page 61 of the purported management letter, there is an allegation that K65 million forfeited from Ms. Faith Musonda was misappropriated. This is a blatant falsehood.”
