Chief government spokesperson Dora Siliya says Zambians should get statistics of corruption from the Anti-Corruption Commission and not political comments from foreigners, in apparent reference to the Transparency International corruption index report..
Last week,Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) chapter president Rueben Lifuka said corruption was getting worse and the country could no longer pretend that all was well.
“Corruption is getting worse and we can no longer pretend [that] all is well. And there is no sector which has been spared in the election period we are going into. We anticipate that corruption will even be worse as various players jostle for power. The absence of laws to regulate political party funding and election campaign financing is a serious constraint for this country. As you know, there is no limitation on political party financing,” said Lifuka
“In fact, one of the political players was challenging Civil Society Organizations to indicate their sources of finding and publish who is paying them and our response is very simple and I want to reiterate that we have no problem providing audited accounts. Our challenge to political parties is that produce even one year audited accounts [but] not a single political party will give you audited accounts. As long as we do not regulate political party financing, we run a serious risk in this country,”
But in response to a press query, Siliya however said she could not agree with the TIZ data that corruption in the country was high unless there were statistics from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
“Get numbers from ACC first, then see what you make of the index. ACC has statistics that is what you need.. Not political comments by foreigners and Zambians. I can’t help without statistics… That is my point. To say corruption is up or down is to have statistics,” said Siliya in her brief response.