Zambia News

According to IMF, corruption grew between 2016 and 2021

According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Diagnostic Report on Governance and Corruption for Zambia, inadequate accountability and transparency systems allowed for the squandering of large resources.

According to the IMF, from 2016 to 2021, corruption “grew particularly entrenched and institutionalized,” further undermining public confidence in institutions.

According to the research, a lack of accountability and openness allowed political and economic elites to circumvent laws governing the use of public resources.

Furthermore, it claims that significant public investments frequently become tools for politicking and rent-seeking opportunities.

According to the IMF research that ZNBC was able to receive, corruption is also thought to have driven up the costs of various well-known construction projects and tenders.

Large sums of money spent on infrastructure initiatives like building roads have been shown to have opened doors for corruption.

The research points out that because the government frequently meddled in the hiring process, political connections allowed members of the elite to circumvent the law and gain access to lucrative contracts during the tender phase.

According to reports, the Farmer Input Support Program, or FISP, which was first implemented in 2002 but quickly came to be seen as ineffectual due to, among other things, corruption, poor targeting, and leakage to non-beneficiaries, was used to channel political supporters.

The IMF also indicates that the FISP favored a small number of input suppliers who seemed to have political connections and were chosen for the program by bending the tendering procedures in its report that was recently given to President HAKAINDE HICHILEMA.

As most citizens considered senior government officials, civil leaders, lawmakers, tax collectors, and judges as corrupt, the report indicates a consistent fall in anti-corruption measures and the negative trend is seen in several governance and corruption indices.

As requested by President HICHILEMA, the IMF delegation conducted a governance diagnostic from January 14 to May 6, 2022.

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