The Sunday Mail
Comm John Makamure Corruption Watch
THE launch of the National Development Strategy 1 dominated news on the economic front in the last few days.
The NDS 1 is the successor to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, and is the first five-year Medium Term Plan aimed at realising the country’s Vision 2030 for a prosperous and empowered upper middle-income society.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission welcomes the launch of NDS1, and strongly believes its successful implementation will go a long way in curbing the menace of corruption.
The six objectives of NDS1 are as follows: strengthen macroeconomic stability characterised by low and stable inflation as well as exchange rate stability; achieve and sustain inclusive and equitable real GDP growth; promoting new enterprise development, employment and job creation; strengthen social infrastructure and social safety nets; ensure sustainable environmental protection and resilience; promote good governance and corporate social investment; and to modernise the economy through use of ICT and digital technology.
The NDS1 emphasises the importance of promoting good governance and its key principles of transparency and accountability. Crafters of the Strategy managed to hit the nail on the head when they identified strategies to achieve transparency and accountability as follows:
• Strengthening institutions of accountability (Auditor General, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, National Prosecuting Authority and Judicial Service Commission) while ensuring their impartiality.
• Strengthening the benefits and sanctions mechanism, and implementing anti-corruption mechanisms (prevention, reporting and prosecution mechanisms) across the board.
• Accelerating implementation of an integrated e-Government system, including alignment of the Public Finance Management legal framework with Zimbabwe’s Constitution.
• Strengthening fiscal transparency through budgeting and expenditure reforms.
• Strengthening the oversight role of Parliament and the Auditor General’s Office.
• Strengthening enforcement and compliance with good corporate governance principles within Local Authorities and State Owned Enterprises and Parastatals.
• Strengthening financial oversight of Local Authorities and State Owned Enterprises and Parastatals.
With specific reference to corruption, the NDS1 commits to the reduction of this vice by ensuring speedy prosecution and resolution of all corruption cases. Further, Government shall capacitate institutions of transparency and accountability such as ZACC, National Prosecuting Authority and the Zimbabwe Republic Police as well as the Judiciary to ensure uncompromised implementation of justice.
A system shall be put in place to protect whistle blowers who report corruption through enacting an Act of Parliament on their protection. The development strategy also requires the Government to implement the anti-corruption strategy and enforcement of assets forfeiture. Public prosecution, asset forfeiture and prevention of corruption are given prominence in the Strategy.
We are pleased as a Commission that the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, launched by His Excellency on July 11 this year, has been mainstreamed in the NDS1. The key pillars of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy include preventive measures, criminalisation and law enforcement, international co-operation, asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange.
Diligent implementation of various measures under these pillars should significantly contribute to the realisation of NDS1 objectives outlined above and ultimately Vision 2030 for a prosperous, empowered upper middle-income society.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy has six strategic objectives whose various actions and interventions will be executed by six sub-committees/monitoring groups whose composition is drawn from all key stakeholders, including Government ministries, agencies and departments; business representative bodies; labour bodies; the religious community; civil society organisations; the journalism fraternity; legal profession; Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe; the financial sector; consumer movement; and the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
These sub-committees report to a 33-member National Anti-Corruption Strategy Steering Committee whose composition is drawn from all these key stakeholders. Membership of the steering committee, presided over by the ZACC chairperson Justice Loyce Matanda-Moyo, is high level to ensure that key decisions are implemented without any delay.
The following are the members of the steering committee whose names were published in the Government Gazette recently: chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission; Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission; Chairperson of the Public Service Commission; Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet; Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police; Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority; Director General of the Financial Intelligence Unit; Director of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations; Director of Transparency International Zimbabwe; Executive Director Chamber of Mines; Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists; Executive Director of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe; Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe; Minister of Finance and Economic Development; Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development; Minister of Information and Publicity; Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Settlement; Minister of Mines and Mineral Development; Minister of Primary and Secondary Education; Minister of Tourism and Hospitality; Office of the Auditor General; President of the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe; President of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries; President of the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe; President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions; President of the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations; President of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce; Prosecutor General to the National Prosecuting Authority; Minister of Foreign Affairs; Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission; Secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe; and Speaker of the National Assembly of the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
The country can never go wrong with such high level representation in the decision-making echelons of the anti-corruption crusade. I say so because everyone is bound by any decision made.
The responsibilities to execute different actions will be clearly spelt out among stakeholders who are accountable to the steering committee. Let me point out that this is the first time in the history of the anti-corruption drive in Zimbabwe that you see diverse stakeholders coming together in a clear show of unity of purpose to fight the vice.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy Steering Committee held a well-attended first meeting on September 10 to adopt its terms of reference and establish the six sub-committees. The enthusiasm demonstrated by participants at this first meeting was highly encouraging. The next meeting of the steering committee is in January 2021 to deliberate on more substantive matters.
All the six sub-committees have had their inaugural meetings and deliberated on pertinent issues to advance the anti-corruption agenda. For example, the sub-committee on whistle blower protection has one of its priorities, the enactment of the whistle blower protection law while the sub-committee to do with systems and governance issues in public entities will push hard for the introduction of an integrity pledge for the public sector, among other issues. As already pointed, asset recovery from proceeds of corrupt activities will be accelerated during NDS1.
The responsible sub-committee will prioritise enactment and enforcement of legal provisions and strengthening of institutional frameworks for asset recovery.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development appropriately co-chairs the asset recovery sub-committee in order to give more bite to this important endeavour with huge fiscal spin-offs.
We have looked at good practices elsewhere in coming up with this collaborative approach in the fight against corruption. In Pakistan, civil society organisations take part in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy Project, an advisory body to the government consisting of members from the public sector, civil society, business, media and academic institutions.
This body is responsible for developing a comprehensive national anti-corruption policy and providing relevant recommendations to the government. The project has contributed in a major way, for instance, in the promulgation of the Freedom of Information Ordinance in order to promote transparency in government operations.
In Papua New Guinea, the business sector, civil society organisations and government representatives cooperate in a formal consultative committee. Another example of collaboration between governments and non-governmental actors in processes of institutional and procedural reform is civil society’s active involvement in the Philippine government’s efforts to reform the country’s procurement system.
In this endeavour, an NGO was tasked by the government with conducting an analysis of existing procurement procedures. On the basis of this analysis, the NGO advocated for reforms, and provided training to relevant public institutions in order to strengthen their capacity in this area.
The organisation continues to monitor selected bidding contracts. In Samoa, a steering group on the implementation of the public service reforms includes not only government officials and politicians, but also a number of private sector representatives.
In the Philippines, government and civil society actors have formally engaged in joint steps to combat corruption in the public sector. This coalition aims to monitor lifestyles of public officials and employees, in order to detect and eradicate possible corruption and graft.
The civil society actors in this coalition assume the task of gathering information on the lifestyle of government officials. Such information is then validated by the participating agencies and investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman. When evidence warrants, appropriate charges are filed before the proper court, including the institution of forfeiture proceedings.
Commissioner Makamure is the ZACC Spokesperson and chairs the Committee on Prevention and Corporate Governance. ZACC Toll Free Lines: 08010101/08004367; Landline: + 263 242 369602/5/8. Whatsapp: +263 719529483; Whistle-blower reporting app: zacc.online/tipoffs; Email: [email protected] , [email protected]
