Secretary to the Cabinet, Patrick Kangwa, has raised concern over the continued failure by some public institutions to submit Annual Corruption Prevention Action Plans and Quarterly Progress Reports, describing the situation as unacceptable.
Kangwa said the documents were critical to accountability, as they enable effective coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the government’s national integrity efforts.
Speaking at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Integrity Committees (ICs) Chief Executive Officers Forum held at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka on Tuesday, Kangwa said integrity performance would now be directly reflected in performance appraisals.
He said his office was working to institutionalise the requirement by incorporating the establishment of Integrity Committees, as well as the submission of Action Plans and Quarterly Progress Reports, into the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers of public bodies.
“I must also highlight that many corporate governance challenges observed in quasi-government agencies will be significantly cured by the comprehensive implementation of the Corporate Governance Code recently approved by Cabinet,” Kangwa said.
He urged Chief Executive Officers of statutory bodies and State-Owned Enterprises to internalise the Corporate Governance Code, saying it complemented the ethical mandate of Integrity Committees.
Kangwa further noted that inadequate funding had remained a long-standing bottleneck in the implementation of Integrity Committee activities.
“Integrity work cannot thrive on goodwill alone; it requires dedicated resources for training, awareness campaigns and other interventions,” he said.
He said his office would engage the Office of the Secretary to the Treasury to secure dedicated funding for the programme.
Kangwa also disclosed that his office was engaging the Secretary to the Treasury to establish a dedicated National Policy on Anti-Corruption (NPAC) Coordinator position to enhance high-level coordination and oversight.
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“Once appointed, the Coordinator will serve as the central liaison with all MPSAs on NPAC matters, streamlining IC programme coordination, ensuring rigorous monitoring and evaluation, and handling all other related activities,” he said.
Earlier, ACC Director General, Daphne Chabu, appealed to public institutions, through their Chief Executive Officers, to comply with Cabinet Circular No. CM24 of 2022 by allocating budgets to Integrity Committee activities.
Chabu said the Commission was proposing the establishment of the Office of the National Policy on Anti-Corruption Coordinator to address coordination bottlenecks in the implementation of the IC programme and other NPAC measures.
“The Commission continues to appeal for the establishment of Ethics Officer positions to serve as full-time IC secretariats in Ministries, Provinces and Spending Agencies to address this challenge, which has continued to compromise the effectiveness of ICs,” she said.
She urged Integrity Committees to intensify both internal and external awareness of their mandate and benefits to build stakeholder confidence.
Chabu said achieving the theme “Setting the Tone from the Top” required stronger accountability at executive level, including making IC establishment and performance a KPI in performance contracts for all Chief Executive Officers of public institutions.
“Currently, this accountability is limited to Permanent Secretaries, and this creates a significant gap in accountability for the heads of numerous statutory bodies and State-Owned Enterprises,” she said.
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