Treasury has supported us immensely: Prosecutor General

by | May 17, 2021 | Crime & Courts, Local News | 0 comments

Mako Jerera

Prosecutor General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi has tipped his hat to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for supporting his office with enabling funds.

Since his appointment, he has superintended over the prosecution of several former Government officials, securing convictions in some high-profile cases.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Mail, PG Hodzi said, “We have refined our strategies, redesigned our programmes and plans of action. But more importantly, we have come up with battle-hardened anti-corruption cadres. We are no longer naïve because the major mistake that we made was underestimating the determination and organisation of the criminal elements, especially the organised criminals.

At the end of two years, we have come up with a clearer picture of the nature of the enemy that we are facing and developed what we call the Integrated Prosecutorial Strategy,” he said.

PG Hodzi conceded that his office handling of corruption matters has improved with time, as they are in the process of learning valuable lessons.

PG Hodzi said the funding, which constrained the office in the past has since been solved and the wheels are now in motion.

With a shortage of human capital and the company being understaffed NPA was operating from a rented building, there were no vehicles, no computers, no Wi-Fi or internet services but now things have improved.

“We have received tremendous support from Government through the Ministry of Finance (and Economic Development). We were given Treasury support to recruit a total of 291 prosecutors and 190 administration staff,” said PG Hodzi.

“The growth of (the) economy and the transformation of the country into a (upper) middle-income economy by 2030 is predicated upon a fight against corruption. Corruption has been responsible for siphoning a lot of resources that were essential for our economic resuscitation. We underestimated the problem but now we have strategies in place,” added PG Hodzi.