Zambia: Commission for Investigations

Updated December 2009

Note: See also CHEWE-CHANDA, A 2009 Promoting the Effectiveness of Democracy Protection Institutions in Southern Africa: The Commission for Investigations and the Permanent Human Rights Commission in Zambia [PDF document], EISA Research report No 43.

The Commission for Investigations is provided for under Article 90 of the Constitution. Its powers and functions are outlined in the Commission of Investigations Act of 1974. The Commission is the equivalent of an ombudsman but with less power. It falls under an Investigator General who is appointed by the President in consultation with the Judicial Services Commission and is answerable to the President.

The Commission deals with complaints of abuse of power such as arbitrary decisions, omissions, improper uses of discretionary powers, decisions made with bad or malicious motives or those influenced by irrelevant considerations, unnecessary or unexplained delays, obvious wrong decisions, misapplication and misinterpretation of laws.

There have been calls to convert it into an Ombudsman's office but this has not happened. It should be an office of parliament, its proceedings must be held in public and it should have enforcement power. It must be given sufficient resources to enable it to decentralise, recruit adequate staff, offer competitive conditions of service, publicise itself and carry out operations (Transparency International 2003) .

References

CONSTITUTION OF ZAMBIA 1996, [www] http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZM/Constitution%20of%20Zambia%201996.pdf/at_download/file [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 9 Mar 2010).

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 2003 "National Integrity Systems Country Study Report-Zambia".