Lusaka Lowdown Online

President Mwanawasa is expected to sign the UN Convention against Corruption in Merida, Mexico, during the launch ceremony on 9 to 11 December. This will be a firm test of his resolve to get rid of the corruption which currently plagues Zambia at all levels.

The President has frequently called for "zero tolerance" for corruption, but several commentators have observed that there remain obvious pockets of corruption within his Government - for example district administrators are reportedly still grabbing for personal use new vehicles supplied to district hospitals. Levy himself has not yet cleared the air over the land he is said to have acquired from the University of Zambia under dubious circumstances.

Nevertheless, signing the Convention will be an important step in the process, which will replace the many multilateral arrangements and non-binding international declarations that currently exist. It should strengthen local initiatives against corruption.

Among its preventive measures, the Convention provides for a code of conduct for public officials, as well as protection for public sector whistleblowers.

The Convention also initially contained a strong provision to fund political parties and make them fully transparent and accountable. The Zambian Government has so far resisted such a move, and in fact the original strong provision was replaced by a weak optional provision.

Initially, too, the Convention recommended that corruption in both public and private sectors should be criminalised, since private corruption can destroy confidence in the system and cause serious economic and political problems. However the proposal for a code of business ethics was omitted from the final draft. It is difficult to control the actions of private companies, but governments could at least officially encourage development of transparent control systems.

Traditional bank secrecy should be limited, the Convention recommends. The proceeds of corruption should be frozen and, if confirmed, they should be confiscated. International cooperation will be required to prevent laundering of corruptly obtained funds or other assets, and to ensure repatriation to the government or country of origin of Africa's stolen wealth, estimated at between US$20 billion and US$ 40 billion

Civil society is expected to be involved in fighting corruption through awareness campaigns and monitoring of public and private activities. The UN is insisting that governments incorporate this expectation in their anti-corruption legislation.

A further test of the Zambian Government's commitment to eliminate corruption will be the speed with which it acts to ratify (through Parliament) and then to domesticate the provisions of the UN Convention into Zambian law. This is a very slow process, seeming to indicate that the Zambian Government is not sincere in signing the international instrument in the first place. The inordinate delays in domesticating the UN Convention against Torture come to mind, and the horrifying implication is that Government was reluctant to give effect to the Convention because, despite its pronouncements, it found torture a useful weapon against its opponents.

What usually happens with anti-corruption instruments (eg the Palermo Convention), says Transparency International Zambia Executive Director Christine Munalula, is that "no one seems to take responsibility, the ACC refer us to Legal Affairs and they in turn refer us to Foreign Affairs". TI Zambia is planning to hold a workshop for top government officials and cabinet ministers to discuss these instruments and their follow up. TI, she says, sees the media as a major stakeholder in the fight against corruption.

Signing the Convention will take us only so far. It is time for the rhetoric to end and be replaced by positive action.

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