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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has called for increased collaboration among stakeholders to conduct research that will produce data-driven evidence to support the fight against corruption across all sectors.
Speaking at the launch of the 2024 Bribe Payers Index (ZBPI) Survey at the ACC headquarters in Lusaka on Friday, Acting ACC Director-General, Monica Mwansa, emphasized the importance of partnerships in enhancing a multisectoral approach, as outlined in the National Policy on Anti-Corruption (NPAC).
She also reiterated the Commission’s national slogan, “A corruption-free Zambia begins with me.”
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Mwansa noted that since 2012, the ACC had worked closely with Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) to conduct the ZBPI survey, which has become a crucial tool in the fight against corruption in Zambia.
The survey provided empirical data to inform anti-corruption interventions and evaluate progress made by stakeholders in reducing bribery and corruption across the country.
“The Zambia Bribe Payers Index survey is critical to our efforts in fighting corruption. The data it generates helps us assess the state of bribery in selected government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), identify services prone to corruption, and evaluate the progress of anti-corruption strategies implemented by the ACC and other stakeholders,” Mwansa stated.
She added that the 2024 ZBPI would focus on several key areas among them, assessing bribery levels in selected MDAs to understand the scale of corruption in public institutions, identifying corruption-prone services within public institutions, which would help target anti-corruption measures more effectively and evaluating the progress of anti-corruption strategies implemented by the ACC and other stakeholders.
Mwansa indicated that they would investigate the extent of bribery and corruption in the implementation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in selected constituencies and generating a bribery and governance index based on selected indicators, which will provide insights into the broader state of governance and bribery in Zambia.
He emphasized that the findings from the ZBPI would serve as a baseline for stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of anti-corruption interventions, such as the Integrity Committee (IC) programme, which was already being implemented across several institutions.
Meanwhile, Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) Executive Director, Maurice Nyambe, underscored the significance of the ZBPI as a tool for measuring bribery and corruption across both the public and private sectors.
He explained that the survey assessed the likelihood and extent of bribery in service provision, making it an essential input in evaluating Zambia’s overall anti-corruption efforts.
“The ZBPI serves as an important corruption measurement tool. It provides an assessment of the probability and extent of bribery behavior in the provision of services by both public and private sector entities. The findings are crucial in helping stakeholders implement targeted interventions that contribute to the fight against corruption in Zambia,” Nyambe said.
He further noted that the overall objective of the ZBPI was to generate empirical anti-corruption data that informs stakeholders’ decisions and actions.
The survey was conducted as a country-wide study based on the specific objectives and themes set for each year.
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