THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is seeking a share of the money recovered from corruption activities to fund its operations in light of budgetary constraints by Treasury.
ZACC spokesperson, Commissioner John Makamure told delegates at a Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) Corruption Perceptions Index Results Report launch in Harare Thursday that government was unable to fulfil all its financial needs to discharge its mandate.
“The fiscus will never be able to fund this anti-corruption fight. We all know that it’s not possible at the moment,” Makamure said.
He said the anti-graft body has recovered millions of dollars and property in its fight against the vice but was unfortunately finding it difficult to discharge its functions without adequate funding.
“We are cognisant of the budgetary limitations, we are making proposals for retention of a percentage of assets recovery so that we are able to capacitate ZACC,” he said.
“We have made arrests on those believed to have committed grand corruption, currently we are running out of space of storage for recovered properties.
“A number of bank accounts have been frozen, but again we are still working on the legal framework to ensure that we finalise the process with the courts.”
Makamure said ZACC was entering into agreements with stakeholder organisations and was now setting its eyes on finding regional partners to spread its wings.
“This ZACC is working with other partners local and regional, this ZACC is determined, it’s serious about stakeholders’ engagement,” he said.
“They will be many MOUs with many others…since we came into office, we have an MOU with NPA, ZRP, judicial service commission, auditor general’s office, ZIMRA and other countries like Botswana.
“We are discussing with other international organisations that specialise in asset tracking and recovery so we are entering with those again.
“That will also assist with expertise, address capacity issues, we have an MOU with financial intelligence unit within the RBZ so that when it comes to unpacking the complex transactions in the financial sector, that unit can assist us.”
