FINANCIAL Intelligence Centre (FIC) Acting Director General Liya Tembo says an increase in corruption cases in the Trends Reports can be attributed to awareness by the centre, vigilance from the private sector or that the vice becoming worse.

And Tembo says the centre has not received any threats from anyone this year.

In an interview, Tembo said the centre wanted to see a response once the reports were made available to authorities.

“I know the popular terminology of that report has been trends report and we do plan to publish statistics, trends on risks and methods even within the year. I think that is the commitment that we can make. In terms of what we will entitle that report, I think we will decide but definitely, the information will be made available within the year. The question of corruption will not just be one sided, so there is the instigator to the corruption, are they seeing anything that can deter them from doing corrupt activities? By that, I mean is the action being taken against these activities severe enough to keep people from doing [that]? But also in terms of the reports, it could be a sign that within our value chain, there is more and more vigilance in rooting out these issues and exposing them. On the other end, we would like to see the response once these reports are made available to authorities like ourselves,” she said.

“So if you see an increase in the statistics on corruption, it could be a result of so many things, awareness that we are providing here, the vigilance from the private sector, but it also could be that it is happening more and more. So I think that when we share that information later in the year, we would be able to show you what we have seen as the trends in terms of statistics. But even with the annual report which [we] have submitted to the Ministry of Finance, once it’s available to the public you will be able to see the statistics there.”

She said there had been an improvement by law enforcement agencies in terms of acting on corruption cases.

“There is an improvement and I think we will be able to see cases going to court, we will be able to see forfeitures, more arrests. So where we are coming from, we were pushing for more action and I think from this point you will be able to see quite a lot of things happening,” Tembo said.

When asked whether the Centre had received any threats like in the past, Tembo responded in the negative.

“We have not received any threats this year, we have not received any threats in 2022 from anyone, we can confirm that,” said Tembo.