Activist, Changala, cautions indicted govt officials not to accept plea bargaining but insist on rule of law

Governance activist, Brebner Changala, has urged the Ministry of Finance and National Planning officials who are facing corruption allegations not to heed to Anti-Corruption Commission’s call for them to pay so that the cases may be drop.

Changala is of the view that if they paid back the money, then it would mean that they were guilty of the allegations.

He said in an interview on Wednesday that ACC must take the cases to court so that those people could be cleared after they had allegedly been embarrassed publicly.

Changala also said the ACC should be concerned that their fight against corruption had always been assisted by regime change.

“In as much as there is political will to fight corruption under the current government, we still do not know what is happening under the carpet the ACC itself is aware of and they don’t want to arrest anybody,” he said.

Changala alleged that there was too much corruption at the Ministry of Agriculture such that they refused to be audited.

He said the fight against corruption under the UPND administration to some extent was selective.

Changala also alleged that having ACC at the office of the president was a failure in the fight against corruption.

He said the moment the gazette notice 1123 was signed to move the law enforcement agencies to the office of the president was the beginning of failure.

“I am of the conviction that under the UPND oversight, institutions should be independent of the executive and having a piece of legislation that the board of the ACC will be reporting to parliament and have a tenure of office for all the oversight institutions,” he said.

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