‘FIC IS SLANDEROUS’

…not operating within its mandate

THE Financial Intelligence centre (FIC) has not been operating within its principle mandate of providing intelligence information to investigative wings and needs to be reformed, Zambian Youths Association against Corruption executive director Maurice Malambo has said.

Mr Malambo said the mandate of FIC should be to gather intelligence information about suspicious transactions andrelay it to relevant investigative wings as opposed to publishing it in raw form without any form of proof.

He said publishing information in raw form in the manner FIC was doing was slanderous.

"The Financial Intelligence centre has continued to operate as a source of rumour mongering by generating and publishing reports on matters that have not been investigated by relevant wings and cannot be substantiated,” Mr Malambo said.

He said the FIC was expected to operate as an Intelligence agency specialised in financial matters.

He said it was saddening that the centre has continued to operate like a Non-governmental organisation aimed at discrediting government's efforts in the fight against corruption and other financial crimes.

Mr Malambo said information gathered by the FIC contains suspicious financial transactions in raw form therefore cannot be disseminated to the public before being investigated by relevant investigative wings.

"Failure by the leadership at the Financial Intelligence Centre to operate within its principle mandate as contained in the FIC Act of 2010 has rendered the institution useless and should be reformed," Mr Malambo said.

He said it was unfortunate the institution has continued to disregard its mandate by publishing raw intelligence information.

Mr Malambo said publication of trends reports jeopardise investigations and rendered the institution to be a mere source of rumours and speculations.

He said most cases handed over to the investigative wings by the FIC had not yielded positive results because of the manner they had been handed by the centre.

He said it was not right for an institution in the frame work of national security to be subjected to public ridicule as the case has been with FIC because of the manner in which it operates.

Mr Malambo appealed to Members of Parliament to repeal and amend the FIC Act to make it more relevant.

"The FIC should be amended because you cannot have a public institution whose sore mandate is rumour mongering and speculations," Mr Malambo said.