Johannesburg – There is panic among Zambian parliamentary members after the country’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) reported three cabinet ministers and two presidential aides to security agencies for possible prosecution for their involvement in what the FIC has described as "dubious" transactions involving millions from government funds, the Zambian Observer reported on Friday.
By law, Zambian banks are required to report any suspicious money transactions to the FIC and when it receives such reports it analyses them.
If satisfied that a financial crime may have been committed, the centre is required to file such reports to the police for further investigation and prosecution.
In the past when the FIC did submit such reports to law enforcement agencies no action was taken and instead the reports were leaked and sold to the suspects.
However, this year the centre released the reports to the general public, causing the parliamentary panic.
Simultaneously the centre has also reported a number of lawyers for further investigation.
Two of the lawyers are said to have been conduits of illicit money from government which they allegedly laundered using their law firms and private companies.