The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, November 17, 1992 — Senior civil servants have been urged to ensure that effective financial and work management is practised in their departments as this is one of the solutions to the ever-increasing cases of corruption and fraud in the country.

The call was made by a senior officer in the Attorney-General’s office, Mr Calvin Mantsebo, when he presented a paper on Fraud, Corruption and Other Irregularities in the Civil Service at a Bulawayo hotel recently. He presented the paper at a conference organised for senior civil servants by the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management.

In his presentation, Mr Mantsebo said the prevention of corruption was every civil servant’s responsibility. He said senior civil servants in particular, should do this through maintaining sound financial control without any loopholes which people could take advantage of.

Mr Mantsebo said there was very little the AG’s office could do to prevent corruption, save for prosecuting those who would have already committed the crime.

He said one of the problems within the civil service was the inability by people in charge of particular departments to articulate the nature of the duties of a person accused of fraud.

“In short, it becomes apparent that there is laxity in the supervision of duty performances contributing to the perpetration of fraud and theft,” said Mr Mantsebo.

He said there was such a rapid increase in cases of corruption and fraud that the country may see an equally high increase in cases of people being investigated by the Attorney-General.

The law officer said there had been a 31 percent increase in fraud cases between 1989 and 1990 and a further 11 percent increase between 1990 and 1991.