ACB needs K13bn for office project

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it needs K13 billion to construct its purpose-built office premises that will accommodate more employees and meet specifications such as cells and interview rooms.

Speaking yesterday when ACB appeared before the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament, ACB director general Martha Chizuma said the graft-busting agency identified land for the project in Lilongwe a long time ago, but has been unable to start the project due to lack of funding.

She said the bureau needs K13 billion for the project, but government has in the 2023/24 financial year allocated about K300 million towards the project, which will cater for designs.

Said Chizuma: “Actually, the time that we had set to have these offices in place already passed. We also don’t know when we will have them because that depends on funding.”

She said operating in rented offices drains the bureau’s resources that would have been used in the fight against corruption.

“The money that goes towards rentals comes from the ORT budget. For example, if we pay about K200 million, it is a lot of money that we could have used for other activities that would have an impact in the fight against corruption,” said Chizuma.

The ACB director general also observed that operating from rented building limits operations of the bureau as such buildings do not have specifications that it needs such as holding cells and interview rooms.

The current building the bureau is operating from only has one interview room and no cells, which affects bureau operations.

This year, ACB requested for K4.5 billion as an initial allocation for the project but the amount was reduced to K1 billion in budget ceilings.

However, the allocation was further reduced to K300 million in the approved budget.

Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Albert Mbawala stressed that having an ACB office complex will send a signal that the country is serious about fighting corruption.

He said the committee will help ACB in lobbying for funding for the project.

“Since the budget for this year already passed, we will push that government should allocate resources in the next budget so that construction of the offices should start,” said Mbawala. Ministry of Finance spokesperson Taurai Banda said government is committed to supporting such projects, but he asked for more time to check what had been submitted on the project and allocations made.