NAC staff drilled on fraud and corruption prevention

National AIDS Commission (NAC) members of staff were on Friday the 16^th December 2022 taken through a range of presentations and practical sessions by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officers as a way of equipping them with skills on fraud and corruption prevention to enable them safeguard the Commission’s integrity.

The training is the first of various initiatives lined up by NAC’s Institutional Integrity Committee (IIC) to ensure that the Commission, as an Independent State Institution established under the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Management) Act Number 9 of 2018, aligns with national fraud and corruption prevention statutes in public institutions.

Speaking when opening the session at Chikho Hotel in Mponela, NAC Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andrew Gonani, stated that the Commission had already set up the benchmark for institutional fraud and corruption prevention by establishing the IIC in line with a 2010 Government direction that all public institutions should establish these committees in order to operationalize the National Anti-Corruption Strategy in the fight against corruption and promotion of public service integrity.

It has been generally noted that corruption is rife in most public institutions and besides tarnishing the image of the institutions, it demoralizes everyone working in those institutions.

“We already have an operational IIC whose annual work plan is allocated one percent of the institutional budget in line with Government direction. This training is a key component of the IIC’s work plan towards equipping staff with tools and expertise to effectively prevent fraud and corruption at NAC,” said Gonani.

ACB Principal Corruption Prevention Officer and co-facilitator of the training, Patrick Mogha, said corruption was a dent on public institutions as it eats large chunks of the institutions’ budgets, leading to their failure to deliver services effectively and efficiently. He further stated that corruption harms those without power, violates human rights and may lead to loss of life.

He cited public procurement, service delivery and institutional internal systems as corruption risk areas in the public sector and highlighted poor provision of public services as a facilitator for corruption in most public institutions.

This view is supported by the recent Corruption Perception Index which ranked some institutions providing public service among those highly perceived as corrupt.

The working relationship between NAC and ACB is expected to culminate into the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions in due course with the aim of providing proper and formal coordination in dealing with fraud and corruption.

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