US unveils US$6m to fight corruption

THE United States of America (US) government has unveiled US$6 million to capacitate the media and civic society organisations (CSOs) in different countries including Zimbabwe to fight corruption and promote good governance.

The fund will be provided through anti-corruption organisations such as the Global AntiCorruption Consortium.

This was announced by the US National Security Council director for anti-corruption Chandana Ravindranath during a presentation at the 2022 US Anti-Corruption Efforts Virtual Reporting tour for journalists hosted by the Foreign Press Centre on Wednesday.

The tour was held under the topic, US Framework and Efforts to Fight Corruption.

“We will also support the work of organisations such as the Global Anti-corruption Consortium by providing up to $6 million to enhance their work to connect media and civil society organisations with one another to expose ill-gotten gains and support legal or policy changes in support of anti-corruption objectives,” Ravindranath said.

“As we have seen with the current situation, corruption enables all forms of criminality, particularly transnational crime. The United States is taking active measures to meet this challenge.”

Zimbabwe has the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and the Special Anti-Corruption Unit Sacu under President Emmerson Mnangagwa office aimed at fighting graft but critics say the two bodies are toothless.

Civic groups argue that there is no political will to fight graft.

Ravindranath added: “Corruption erodes good governance, stifles investment and economic growth, exacerbates inequality, impedes government services, and allows criminality to flourish. And all over the world, transnational corruption tilts the economic playing field against hardworking citizens and makes it harder for them to provide for their families.”