ACC sanctifying probes against ministers

By Daily Revelation Editor

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says the commission will not announce the names of ministers and other senior government officials who are under investigation in order to protect their integrity.

In the same breath, ACC deputy director Monica Chipanta Mwansa confirmed that her commission was investigating ministers and other senior officials for alleged corruption.

However, we find this argument unacceptable from the outset as there is actually no harm in announcing any investigations against any government official. Is the the ACC saying that there was no integrity they were seeking to protect in the several investigations they announced against members in the opposition or those who had fallen out of favour with the top leadership in government? Was it not this same ACC which announced investigations against former leaders Bowman Lusambo, Given Lubinda and even former Health permanent secretary Dr George Magwende, barely a few hours after he was fired by President Hakainde Hichilema?

In essence, the ACC is confirming double standards in these investigations, telling the nation that the investigations against the ministers are holy and consecrated to the holy see at State House, and it is therefore sinful to announce them? And how do we expect the same ACC then which sanctifies probes against ministers and other senior government officials to fight corruption wholesomely as Hichilema himself continuously regurgitates, although with the usual constipation that follows his words and his actions. 

We are left to wonder. Is this the renewal President Hichilema promised the nation when he dissolved the board and ‘accepted’ the resignation of Thom Shamakamba as director general, or there is something better up his sleeves? Time will tell, but we are inclined to think the status quo will hold. Anyway we wait to see who Hichilema will appoint to the ACC board and to its directorship and what other regulatory moves he will take to unbundle the ACC from his firm clutches, so that it serves its true purpose as an organisation established to fight past, present and future corruption unfettered in any way.

This vile idea of sanctifying investigations against senior government officials will not yield any tangible results for the country. We feel this is the more reason why the ACC investigations involving government officials take forever, and in most cases the impotence of such investigations mostly lead to their natural deaths, to be resurrected by another party that comes into power for political capital against those they have deposed from office.

It’s now three years since the UPND came into office, and the public has never heard from the commission about investigations involving any minister, but they say they have been investigating these matters. Just imagine! The real bosses, the people, have never been told anything about investigations involving any of their servants in government, despite the institution responsible for the investigations telling them that there are some servants who are being investigated.

If for instance the commission is investigating a minister in charge of rivers and their inhabitants, why not just say so? So in the commission’s considered wisdom, it is easier to announce the investigations against Lusambo or Magwende and not the minister for example? And going by the argument from the ACC, it’s easier to defile the integrity or attach a stigma to Lusambo or Magwende than any serving minister? What sort of argument is this? 

With such kind of reasoning, we are urging those who still hold scanty hopes about a resurrection in the manner the commission operates, to actually ready the burial clothes as this is where the whole thing is heading to, until kingdom come. 

On the issue of corruption, the only tangible thing assured is the President’s bellicose pronouncements against the vice, nothing much.