Corruption probe into Zimsec exam leaks
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is investigating examination leakages that have dogged the country’s education sector leading to widespread cheating.
Zacc deputy chairperson, Dr Nanette Silukhuni, told an anti-corruption conference on Tuesday in Victoria Falls that the commission had initiated an investigation into various sectors, including the education sector.
She said the commission had since concluded a probe into the health sector and was now moving to the education sector to weed out corrupt activities in line with President Mnangagwa’s call for zero tolerance to corruption.
“We plan to spread to other sectors and currently we are undertaking a review in the education sector as we also want to look at how best leakages in examinations can be eliminated.
“We want to make sure situations that prevailed recently can be avoided hence there are a whole lot of areas we want to look into like corporate governance,” said Dr Silukhuni.
She commended the new dispensation for giving Zacc the impetus and teeth to investigate without fear or favour.
Exam cheating last year saw Zimsec nullifying the Ordinary Level English Paper 2 but the High Court ordered that English Paper 1only should be used for marking.
Dr Silukhuni said in the health sector investigations were made at major referral hospitals such as Mpilo Central, Parirenyatwa, Chitungwiza and Harare Central Hospital.
She said there is rampant corruption in the selection of nurse trainees who are forced to pay bribes to secure places.
“The initiative to go into institutions is driven by prevention of corruption which is our Constitutional mandate that we should advise Government on how best we can curb corruption.
“We took the initiative to focus on health with special emphasis on recruitment and we covered the length and breadth primarily the four major referral hospitals looking mostly at their systems, procedures and governance applications and we are happy with the process,” said Dr Silukhuni.
She said Zacc also identified corrupt activities in the procurement of drugs and a full report of findings will be released soon.
Dr Silukhuni called for a mind-set change saying Zimbabweans should embrace technology to be able to deal with corruption.
She said Zacc will soon launch the national strategy on corruption and appealed for “strong political will” which she said is of paramount importance.—@ ncubeleon