Zambia: ACC Seizes Motor Vehicles From Three Solwezi Council Directors

THE Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in North-Western Province has impounded three motor vehicles allegedly obtained corruptly by three Solwezi Municipal Council directors.

The vehicles, a Toyota Hilux Surf registration number AAZ 7032, Toyota Corona ABM 998, and a Toyota Mark II (ACK 3886), which were found parked at the ACC offices in Solwezi yesterday, were impounded on Tuesday.

ACC officers also confiscated various documents, including council minute books, site plans and a receipt from a stolen council receipt book, from the directors' homes.

ACC sources in Solwezi said the trio, who were expected to be interviewed yesterday to account for their properties, were allegedly using their vehicles as mobile offices.

Regional manager, Humphrey Mwiinga referred all queries to the ACC public relations office in Lusaka.

The action by the ACC came after an adhoc committee appointed by Mayor Emmanuel Chihili to investigate allegations of plot allocations among council staff and the councillors named various council officers in its report.

The committee, headed by Solwezi administrative officer, Luyanga Kapumo, drew members from the council and Government departments that included the ACC, Drug Enforcement Commission, Provincial Planning Office, and the Provincial Local Government Office.

The committee discovered that the faking of minutes was common and was used as a way of allocating plots dubiously.

Some plots and site plans did not conform to Government layout plans.

The report says there were some cases of forging of signatures, which had been identified especially on documents that were supposed to be signed by the Ministry of Lands provincial officer.

The committee heard that there was no single authority in plot allocations, as junior staff were demarcating all open-space areas and allocated them to people without the blessings of the council.

The committee established that the council had inadequate capacity to handle development challenges given the present state of low staffing levels and lack of qualified technical and professional staff.

The committee, which heard how some members of staff gave themselves plots during the sub-divisions of small holdings, recommended urgent need for employing qualified and competent staff.

It said there was need to completely overhaul the engineering department and employ qualified engineers, and that staff that stole the receipt book should be prosecuted.

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