Assets declarations office warns public officers

Principal declarations officer for public education in the Office of the Director of Public Officers’ Declarations, Bright Chimatiro, has said listed public officers who have not declared their assets risk facing prosecution.

He said as far as the laws regulating the assets body are concerned, officers who do not register their assets face expulsion, payment of a fine K500 000 fine or face imprisonment.

Chimatiro said if those listed officers in the civil service are not comfortable with the asset declaration phenomenon, they are free to leave and join other sectors.

He said this yesterday during a declaration public awareness meeting at Blantyre Girl’s Primary School in Blantyre.

“It is a global trend, a lot of countries are adopting this mechanism as one way of safeguarding corrupt practices, hence we adopted it,” he said.

Chimatiro further said the outcome has been overwhelming as they have registered 10 400 people in their database.

He urged the public not to request for documents related to assets declared by listed officers out of malice, emphasising that doing so is unethical.