Strengthening Our Fight Against Corruption with Transparency International

It was a pleasure hosting the Global Chairperson of Transparency International, Professor François Valerian, along with his team, including members from the Zambian Chapter, at State House this morning.

During our meeting, we lauded Transparency International for its support of Zambia over the past two decades and expressed our delight that Zambia is currently hosting the International Anti-Corruption Conference.

We recognized recent improvements on Zambia's corruption perception index (CPI) from 33 to 37 but acknowledged that much more needs to be done through measures we have put in place to fight corruption.

We highlighted the establishment of the Judicial Training Institute, aimed at enhancing the capacities in justice delivery. To this extent, we indicated our efforts to address concerns about undue delays in corruption cases by promulgating Statutory Instrument No. 10 of 2024, which provides for the speedy disposal of cases within five months. The agility required to combat corruption must be matched by agility in response.

Furthermore, we acknowledged that asset recovery processes must endeavor to address the aspect of victims of corruption that were affected when these resources were stolen, through possible restitution.

We urged Transparency International to share their extensive experience in the fight against corruption with the government, to enable us to make our efforts against corruption more robust and effective.

Hakainde Hichilema,

President of the Republic of Zambia.