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Bulawayo Bureau
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) has urged public institutions to set up integrity committees, which it says is one of the effective tools to prevent corruption and promote good corporate governance at grassroots level.
Zacc made the call during a capacity-building workshop in Bulawayo, which was attended by officials from public institutions.
In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, Zacc spokesperson Commissioner Thandiwe Mlobane said the establishment of integrity committees will help eradicate and combat corruption as well as other forms of abuse of office by workers at public institutions.
She said the setting up of the committees will institutionalise the prevention of corruption by enhancing personal integrity and promoting accountability.
“We believe that where there is strong governance and strong institutions, there is limited opportunity for corruption hence we are meeting officials from public institutions including Rural District Councils to explain the importance of these integrity committees,” said Comm Mlobane.
She said at institutions where there was high integrity, cases of corruption were low.
Comm Mlobane said many public officials, among them council officials and councillors are being arrested for flouting procurement procedures, involvement in fraud, favouritism during recruitment or selling of stands.
She said it was hoped that the establishment of integrity committees will reduce cases of corruption being reported to Zacc.
Comm Mlobane said by encouraging the establishment of integrity committees, Zacc was decentralising its services to institutional level as these committees will expose, combat and eradicate corruption at the workplace.
“We are encouraging public institutions to establish their own anti-corruption institutions which however, do not have arresting and investigating powers. Today we met representatives of 148 institutions including RDCs, State universities, commissions and parastatals,” she said.
Rural District Councils representatives commended the initiative, saying that it will reduce cases of corruption at councils which are being blamed for poor service delivery.
“The establishment of integrity committees will assist councils to detect, expose and combat corruption,” said Gwanda RDC chief executive officer Mr Ranganai Sibanda.
He said when councils manage to reduce cases of corruption it means improved service delivery that benefits members of the public.
Beitbridge RDC chairperson Mr Luka Ndou said had Zacc come up with the initiative earlier, a number of corruption cases affecting many public institutions could have been prevented.
“We didn’t know about the importance of integrity committees and now that we have been enlightened, we now need to go and implement this concept,” he said.
Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia are some of the countries that have successfully introduced integrity committees and they have proved effective in fighting corruption.
Online Reporter