adminNgoni Dapira
CORRUPTION in Zimbabwe is mostly being perpetrated through white-collar crime, which refers to financially motivated, non-violent crime usually committed by business and government professionals, a legal expert has said.
Transparency International Zimbabwe senior legal officer Mr Themba Mahleka said this last week Tuesday during his presentation at a Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association community service organisations capacity training seminar in Mutare.
Mr Mahleka said prisons constituted mostly blue-collar criminals largely because white-collar crimes were committed by people in positions of trust and high social status.
He added that corruption remained high on the agenda as the biggest contributor to the economic meltdown of most developing countries.
Last year President Robert Mugabe launched a zero tolerance towards corruption campaign, which even roped in senior Government officials over revelations about aiding and abetting corruption and the looting of State enterprise coffers.
Following his Excellency’s famous slogan last year, “Corruption must go, corruption must go, corruption must go,” strides to stamp out corruption in the public sector were effected with initiatives such as performance contracts, changing of board members and the incumbent audit of all quasi-government institutions.
Mr Mahleka said corruption should remain a top priority that governments should never stop acting on.
He said although Zimbabwe’s corruption perceptions index remained stagnant at 21/100 in 2013 and 2014 there was still need for more action from Government to stamp out corruption.
The TIZ corruption perceptions index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 175 countries worldwide.
Somalia and North Korea top the CPI top corrupt nations list with 8/100 whilst Denmark is the highest ranked less corrupt nation with 92/100.
Zimbabwe is at the same level with Cambodia, Angola, Syria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Mahleka said while political will was shown by Government last year in the exposure of rampant corruption in quasi-government institutions, more still needed to be done.
“The lower the score means the higher the perceived level of public sector corruption in the country.
“Behind these numbers is the daily reality for people living in these countries. The index cannot capture the individual frustration of this reality, but it does capture the informed views of analysts, businesspeople and experts in countries around the world,” he said.
Early this year the Finance and Economic Development Minister, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, acknowledged the need for parastatal reform to ensure transparency and accountability and lure foreign direct investors.
The 2012 Global Financial Integrity report indicated that Zimbabwe had an average cumulative loss of US$515 million per year due to white-collar crime.
Mr Mahleka said the illegal flow of money from Zimbabwe had dire effects on the economy, including a decline in hard currency reserves, tax revenues and investment inflows.
In 2014 there was an exposure of rampant corruption within Government and parastatals, coined the salarygate scams.
Zimbabwe’s parastatals had become synonymous with corruption and mismanagement making them a perennial drain on the country’s fiscus.
In January Auditor-General Mildred Chiri also slammed Government ministries and parastatals for their culture of poor corporate governance leading to the loss of millions of dollars in public funds.
Online Reporter