Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Paul Kabuswe says government has discovered a number of anomalies that had characterized the Zambian mining cadastre system following an audit.
Mr. Kabuswe says the development comes after the Process Audit that was commissioned to deal with the concerns that were raised by the public about the cadastre department, particularly the issuance of mining licences.
Speaking at a media briefing today, Mr Kabuswe disclosed that according to the initial audit findings, there are some people who are owning as much as 50 mining licenses which is hindering on effective investment in the mining sector.
He says to cure this problem, a Statutory Instrument will be issued in due course to restrict the number of active mining rights that the same beneficial owners can hold at a given time.
Mr. Kabuswe further says the findings also revealed that some mining firms on the cadastre system are holding mining rights but have never been registered with PACRA which may be as a result of corruption and fraud, hence government will seek to address the problem through an initiative called Know Your Customer (KYC).
He adds that through the support of Smart Zambia, government will link the mining cadastre system to other authentic government databases on order to avoid fraud.
Meanwhile, Mr Kabuswe disclosed that in order to address the key weaknesses in the cadastre system that have led to a damaged reputation for the department, a Business Process Re-engineering Exercise is already underway spearheaded by Smart Zambia Institute.