In order to increase accountability, Chapter One Foundation has proposed for lifestyle audits and asset and liability declarations for civil servants who handle public funds.
Despite handling substantial amounts of public funds, Public Servants are not required by existing law to disclose their holdings, according to Foundation Executive Director Linda Kasonde.
According to Ms. KASONDE, the present Ministry of Finance crisis involving the alleged theft of 500 million Kwacha by some Civil Servants is the ideal illustration of why some Civil Servants need to make public service statements.
She claims that misappropriating public cash hurts the poor and raises the nation’s rate of poverty.
This was said by Ms. KASONDE during a press conference in Lusaka where she also released a research commissioned by her organization on measures to improve public service declaration laws in order to increase accountability and advance transparency.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ministers, and other public officials must annually register their assets and liabilities under the terms of the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act, she said, and that is another aspect of the study that will be examined.
