Back to Index

Corporate crime rocks the Financial Sector
Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI-Z)
January 15, 2004

Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) welcomes the arrest of ENG Capital Asset Management (ENGAM) Executive Directors, Gilbert Muponda and Nyasha Watyoka for allegedly defrauding investors bullion in excess of $60billion, as a positive move towards bringing to book the ever increasing cases of white collar crime in the corporate sector. The directors were taken into police custody on 31 December 2003 after the financial institution failed to pay back up to $100billion of investors' funds. Commenting on the subsequent arrest of the two founder directors, TIZ Chairperson Dr. John Makumbe said "We encourage the police and other law enforcement agencies to uphold the law and ensure that all culprits are brought to book without regard to political or social status. Further we urge the government to speed up the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to spearhead the fight against corruption and unethical business conduct."

The breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe has created a fertile environment for the proliferation of corruption and unethical conduct. TIZ believes there is a lot more to the ENG saga particularly pertaining to other so called Asset Management Companies that have not yet been exposed that needs investigation by law enforcement agents.

TIZ salutes the police commissioner for the unwavering stance on the matter and wishes to impress upon the police force to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the full course of justice takes its course. TIZ is equally concerned that the law enforcing agents in particular the Zimbabwe Republic Police may encounter constraints in effectively handling the complexity of the matter due to limited resources. Given the high number of pending cases of serious crime, corruption and outright theft unravelled in the latest Police Report on this subject, TIZ hails the Police Commissioner for the clampdown on corporate crime.

We urgently call upon the Government of Zimbabwe to realise that apart from the ongoing saga in the financial sector, there is widespread asset stripping of the nation, including the illegal mining, processing and exportation of various minerals such as gold and other precious metals, some of which are being exported in their ore form. There is a growing and threatening lawlessness in the handling of actual cash, with considerable losses being made by the nation through the externalisation of both the local and foreign currency. In most of these corrupt activities, very senior people in both the public and the private sectors of the economy are deeply involved.

Visit the TI-Z fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP