Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has noted the story carried by NewsDiggers in its Tuesday 1st September 2020 edition, where the acting Director General of the Financial Intelligent Centre (FIC) has resigned amidst reports suggesting that the 2019 Money Laundering Trends Report may not be released anytime soon this year as the FIC board has not given a go ahead for its dissemination to the public. TI-Z believes that what is reported, if indeed true, represents a serious impediment to our quest as a country to enhance transparency and accountability in the management of our affairs, and ultimately to the fight against corruption in Zambia.
We are on record as having raised some concerns when the President through the Minister of Finance appointed the current Board of the FIC. The concerns we raised back then related to the independence of the new Board, given the people that had been appointed to serve on it. The NewsDiggers revelations, if true, sadly confirm the worst of the fears we expressed back then. It makes sad reading for us that instead of building on the professionalism and good reputation of the previous Board as an entity that did not give in to any external influence in delivering on the mandate of the FIC, the current Board appears to have taken a retrogressive stance in seemingly allowing itself to be influenced by those who wield political power.
It is not lost on us that since the release of the 2018 Trends Report last year, the Management of the FIC, particularly the Director General, has long been a victim of incessant attacks from senior government and ruling party officials, seemingly under the misguided notion that the FIC is out to get the ruling party in some way. As a matter of fact, we recall that President Edgar Lungu himself publicly accused the FIC of being on a witch hunt which was poisoning the country, while the Chief Government Spokesperson went as far as stating that the FIC should not be releasing its Trends Analysis Report to the general public. Our fear back then was that the appointment of the current Board – led by Justice Irene Lombe Chibesakunda – was partly intended to address these perceived ills in order to make the FIC succumb to the wishes of the government in power. The fact that the Board has reportedly withheld the 2019 Trends Analysis Report does not only play into all the fears we had but also raises serious questions about whose interests the current Board is serving if not those of the Zambian people. If proved true, the NewsDiggers revelations will entail that the FIC is under siege from political interference and those serving on the Board were strategically positioned there to merely fulfil a dead-rubber fixture in a bid to weaken the Centre.
It is our considered view as TI-Z that in the absence of legislation to regulate political party campaign financing, there is a high chance of suspicious financial transactions taking place, especially with the 2021 elections coming under 12 months from now. The work of the FIC is therefore of paramount importance in that regard and anything that hinders that work should not be entertained by any well-meaning Zambian.
We would also like to remind the FIC Board of our commitment to the Egmont Group, a united body of Financial Intelligence Units from 165 countries from across the world, which Zambia officially became a member of in September 2018. Members of the Egmont Group are dedicated to sharing expertise to combat money laundering and other financial crimes, and membership to this global entity is an important proxy indicator of transparency in the operations of a country’s Financial Intelligence entity. TI-Z is concerned that the apparent politically-fueled interference with the work of the FIC does not only go against the principles of transparency and openness which the Egmond Group espouses, but further dents Zambia’s reputation before the international community, with potentially damaging consequences on the country’s ability to attract the much needed foreign investment into the economy.
TI-Z would therefore like to strongly urge Justice Chibesakunda and her Board to put the country’s interests over and above those of individuals – as powerful as those individuals can be and regardless of the positions they hold – and allow Management at the FIC to release the 2020 Trends Analysis report in its original form. We simply cannot afford to allow the FIC’s credibility to be lost on account of a Board that is seemingly eager to serve narrow individual interests over those of the country. A professional, strong and truly independent FIC is an absolute necessity if we are to make progress not just in the fight against corruption but generally in adhering to the principles and ideals of good governance.
Reuben. L. Lifuka
Chapter President
