Veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga has commended the government on the improved corruption perception index, which he says is the most improved and seen after so many years.
Zambia has made slight progress in addressing corruption, according to the latest 2023 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International. The country scored 37 out of 100 from the 33 scored in 2022, indicating that it has improved its corruption record. However, countries that score below 50 out of 100 are considered to have serious corruption problems.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times, Mwaanga charged that the most perceived areas of corruption in Zambia are the issuance of government contracts for the procurement of public goods and services, such as road contracts, construction contracts, and contracts involving the purchase of goods from outside the country such as fuel.
“We have corruption on the roads from the officers who stop people who don’t have tax but that is the smaller side of corruption. The top five areas or services of perceived corruption in Zambia are especially government contracts such as road contracts, construction contracts, and purchase of goods from outside the Country such as fuel, these are the key areas where corruption seems to have shown its ugly head in the past,” he said.
“It’s good to see that the corruption perception index has gone down for Zambia and it’s the lowest we’ve heard for many years I hope that President HH and his colleagues will continue this fight against corruption to correct the mistakes of the past and ensure that public resources are well spent on projects which benefit members of the community.”
“I do hope that they will tighten the screws to ensure that whatever little corruption that may have been left there is eliminated because we need those resources to benefit the people of Zambia, not the leaders, not their families, and not their friends,” said Mwaanga.
Mwaanga hopes that Hakainde Hichilema’s led administration will continue with the fight against corruption to correct the mistakes of the past and ensure that public resources are well spent on projects that benefit members of the public.
He emphasized the need for Zambia to learn from countries with the least perceived corruption and for the government to ensure that perpetrators of corruption are brought to book regardless of their social statuses.
“What we can learn from countries with the least perceived corruption is to ensure that corruption is eliminated. Corruption is evil and it must be put to an end because it does impact economic growth and the lives of ordinary people,” he said.
“Apart from learning from Countries with the least perceived corruption, we also need to learn from what has happened in other Countries of the World to put a tight screw to ensure that those with an appetite for corruption are brought to book and that those who have misused public resources regardless of who they must be brought to book and must be made to account for what they have done,” said Mwaanga.
Mwaanga believes that corruption is evil and must be put to an end because it does impact economic growth and the lives of ordinary people.
He also stated that Zambia needs to learn from what has happened in other countries of the world to put a tight screw to ensure that those with an appetite for corruption are brought to book and that those who have misused public resources, regardless of who they are, must be made to account for what they have done.
He however hoped that the Zambian government would take concrete steps to address corruption, especially in the issuance of government contracts, to ensure that public resources are well spent and that ordinary citizens benefit from government projects.
