The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has been ranked as the most corrupt public institution in the country as citizens attest to the low morality prevailing within the police force.
This was established through National Bribes Payers Index research that was carried out by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) meant to assess the prevalence of bribery within the public sector.
According to the report, ZRP was ranked the most bribe-taking institution with 38.9% followed by the Vehicle Inspection Department which scored 18.9% ahead of the Registrar General’s office with a 15.1% allocation of bribery in the sector.
The study was carried out through surveys conducted across the rural and urban divide totaling 2 583 respondents.
“These statistics show that the citizens have very little confidence in the ZRP and explain why they hardly report incidences of bribe-seeking behavior to anyone other than family and friends. The reason may be that most citizens see it as a waste of time to report the cases as the ZRP is perceived to be ineffective in dealing with the issues” states the report.
As the study also provides insights into efforts put in place by corruption busters and TIZ Director, Tafadzwa Chikumbu said since some institutions are failing, it is high time the public take matters into their own hands against rife corruption.
“Some of the institutions supposed to be fighting corruption are implicated in this report. So, it is high time we need citizens to put in their efforts towards the fight against corruption,” he said.
Speaking at the recently held National Anti-Corruption Indaba in Harare, Legislator Temba Mliswa said there is a lack of agency amongst the citizens to resist bribe paying and other forms of corruption.
“The public itself must fight corruption. We need to revisit our DNAs as Zimbabweans, that we were able to fight against racism, against the Smith regime but where is the DNA to keep fighting corruption. We were prepared to sacrifice our lives, so why are we not sacrificing to this cause,” he said.
The research found that public confidence is at its lowest as 58% of the respondents expressed low confidence in ZACC, 55% rated zero confidence in ZRP and 45% also said a lack of confidence in the entire Zimbabwe National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
This paints a bleak picture of the state of corruption fighting in Zimbabwe. The country continues to rank low on the corruption indexes and oversight institutions lament impunity on high profile cases.
The African Union estimates that 25% of Africa’s gross domestic product is lost through corruption.
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