MUTARE– The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) says it has put forward a proposal to government seeking powers to retain fifteen percent of money from recovered assets.
ZACC spokesperson commissioner John Makamure said as the anti-graft body moves towards operationalizing the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) there was need for critical financial support.
He said the commission needs substantial financial resources and it will move to revamp its legislative framework to legalize this percentage retention from assets recovered.
“It’s a very ambitious strategy so we need to be well funded to be able to operate efficiently and to ensure that the NACS is fully operationalized on the ground.
“We are going to engaging in national awareness campaign for the strategy and we need the support of partner organisations to be able to achieve this, there will be a lot of research and we need experts carry out the technical aspects of the strategy.
“There are so many things that will need to be funded so without the capacity to generate its own revenue, which we cannot fully get from asset recovery, there is no way the strategy will be fully implemented.
“So, we call upon development partners and stakeholders to also appreciate what we are facing and support but we still need to recover those assets to fund our operations in the interim,” he said.
Makamure said the commission will soon amend the Anti-Corruption Act to carter for the proposals that have been made in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
Pressed on the actual funds needed by the commission, Makamure said they need substantial budget and would soon enact a new Act to govern operations of the anti-graft body.
“We will need an Act of Parliament to be able to retain the percentage that we are proposing, which is 15% of the total value of assets recovered at any given time.
“We are looking at revamping the Anti-Corruption Act, by proposing a new Act to govern the operations of the commission and the anti-corruption fight, but we need stakeholder support because these are public funds that we are proposing to retain.
“We need a substantial budget, when the NACS is finalised we will need to implement the strategy, while at the moment we have no budget until we finalize the strategy we can then come up with a budget,” said Makamure.
ZACC chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo is on record saying that the commission has identified US$7 billion in cash and properties worldwide stashed by former and current senior Government officials.
Part of this externalized loot, in properties and cash are stashed in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius and Spain, among others.
