ACC Arrests Solwezi Council Employees

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has arrested three employees at Solwezi Municipal Council for suspected corruption totalling more than K200,000.

Andrew Toms Mutobo, a senior health education officer, Inambao Muwanei, a cleaning superintendent, and Mpomwa Sinkala, a health inspector, were arrested on Tuesday and charged with a conflict of interest under the Public Procurement Act. The employees are accused of supplying K228,560 worth of goods to Solwezi Council under a company called Mai Innovation Ltd, of which they are the shareholders and directors.

The arrest comes after anomalies were spotted in the Special Auditor General’s 2023 report on Solwezi Municipal Council. The trio have since been released on bond and are due to appear in court soon.

Earlier this year, President Hakainde Hichilema carried out a shakeup at the ACC, appointing former Ministry of Lands permanent secretary and prominent Ndola lawyer Daphne Chabu as the commission’s director general. President Hichilema has also appointed former Supreme Court Justice Evans Hamaundu as chair of the ACC’s board and Kaumbu Mwondela as its vicechair.

The ongoing arrests of corrupt officials demonstrates the New Dawn’s government’s continual commitment to rooting out corruption at every level of public life in Zambia.