Pay anti-corruption officers minimum of $5 000 a month- Zimbabwe Parliament says

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ZIMBABWE ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION (VOTE 31)

2.5.1 Introduction

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has a mandate to combat corruption, theft, abuse of power and other improprieties in Zimbabwe through investigation, public education, prevention, and cause prosecution after thorough investigation. The Commission is further mandated to make recommendations to Government and other persons on the measures to enhance integrity and accountability and prevent improper conduct in the public and private sector.

ZACC is operating its budget under three programmes namely; Corporate Affairs, Combating Corruption and Prevention of Corruption. The Commission has an approved staff establishment of 192 with 147 in post as at September 2019. Of those in post, 88 (60%) are men and 59 (40%) women, a situation reflective of under-representation of women. In terms of gender budgeting, the Commission seeks to tackle the problem of inequity in the recruitment and promotion process; inequality in training opportunities; and gender imbalance in assignment of duties.

2.5.2 Some of the Major Achievements in 2019

• Initiated consultations for the development of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
• Submitted lay bill for the framework for protection of whistle-blowers and witnesses and recommendations of amendments to Anti-Corruption Act Chapter 9:22.
• Facilitated the review of Zimbabwe’s compliance to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and now awaiting results of the review.
• Investigated 486 cases. Of these, 56 were referred for prosecution and the rest are at different stages of completion.
• Recovered assets valued at ZWL$100 million.

2.5.3 Some of the Policy Priorities for 2020-2022

• Investigation and prevention of corruption.
• Conducting parallel financial investigations and asset recovery on all corruption cases investigated.
• Development of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
• Conducting National Corruption Impact Assessment.
• Decentralisation to six regions in 2020.
• Establishment of an Electronic Case Management System.

2.5.4 Vote Analysis for 2020

ZACC mounted a bid of ZWL$100 million and Treasury was able to appropriate ZWL$71,550,000, a negative variance of 28%. This appropriation of ZWL$71,550,000 translates to 0.11% of the total budget, which was considered to be very small compared to regional anti-corruption agencies. While there is no prescribed benchmark for funding anti-corruption agencies, regional budgetary allocations range from 1% to 5%. For example, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime of Botswana is allocated around 1.7% of the national budget while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria is allocated 1.5%. Comparatively, the 0.11% appropriated to the Commission is very small.

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