The Sunday News
Nkosilathi Sibanda, Business Reporter
BUSINESS and industry analysts will tomorrow gather in the city to map ways on how the country can best nip corruption in order to promote transparency in the economy.
This comes on the heels of much hyped up anti-graft campaigns spearheaded by Government. The regional indaba will be hosted anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International.
Speaking to Sunday News Business on Wednesday afternoon, Transparency International’s Research and Policy Officer, Thubelihle Ncube said the aim of the event was to raise awareness on the impact corruption had to various facets of the economy.
She said they aim to lead in the anticorruption fight countrywide through discussing and mapping ways to strengthen accountability, transparency, and good governance.
The gathering will run under the theme, Enhancing Citizens Voice and Government Responsiveness in the Fight Against Corruption.
“It is envisaged that such a dialogue will not only raise stakeholder interest and awareness in anticorruption agenda but ultimately lead to improved service delivery, increase inclusion of marginalized groups and youths in anticorruption agenda, as well as continuous advocacy for the government to strengthen legislation/ institutions on corruption.
“The stakeholders will be drawn from relevant government departments and institutions, political parties, civil society organisations and the general citizens with anticorruption passion,” said Ncube.
She said, through their numerous researches on the performance of the economy, corruption activities came out as top causal factors dealing economic improvement.
“Corruption is one of the top issues raised in the governance discourse and public policy formulation in Zimbabwe. The Government of Zimbabwe has in various policy instruments and national budgets communicated its interest to resolve the problem of corruption, this seemingly grain of political will to curb corruption, Zimbabwe continues to perform poorly in various governance processes.
“Citizen perception on the increase in corruption levels in Zimbabwe as well as the fact that government doing a bad job in fighting corruption seems complimented by the many Audit reports exposing graft and rot in public institutions,” she said.
Stakeholders expected at the event include the academia, community members, activists, Parliament of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, police, Government Ministries and agencies, civic society organizations, the media and local government authorities.
