Perception of Corruption in State Land Administration Services in Zambia

Context and Background: In Zambia, the National Anti-Corruption Policy (2023), Anti-Corruption Act (2012), and the Anti-Corruption Commission exist. Despite the existence of the policy, legal and institutional frameworks against corruption (including land corruption) in the country, corruption in land administration services remains high in Zambia. Incidences of corruption in the land sector have been widespread for a long time and this has been acknowledged widely by government and stakeholders. Goal and Objectives: This paper aims at establishing the status of perception of corruption in land administration services, investigating the forms and drivers of corruption in state land administration services, and investigating the progress made to minimise corruption in state land administration services. Methodology: Both secondary and primary data were collected for this study. Secondary data were obtained through desk research and documents collected from the government offices. Secondary data was supplemented by primary data obtained from five purposively selected institutions: Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (3 key respondents), Kitwe City Council (5 key respondents), and Zambia Land Alliance (Kitwe office) (1 key respondent). The data collection method used with the respondents was in-depth face-to-face interviews and sampling technique used was purposive sampling. Primary data were also collected from ninety-six (96) households in Kitwe West in order to determine the consistency of empirical data from respondents working for various institutions, thereby also enhancing data validity and reliability. During data collection, simple random sampling was used to select the household respondents who lived in owner-occupied houses and skipped over those that were rented out. Moreover, among the owner-occupied houses, only those that had directly dealt with the Kitwe City Council and Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources when acquiring state land and obtained certificates of title were considered. This implies that those who acquired land from the private vendors were not part of the sample size. Results: According to research findings, state land administration services which included land allocation, and land registration and titling are perceived to be prone to corruption. The forms of corruption that are perceived to be prevalent were bribery, favoritism, and fraud, listed in order of the most common to the least common. Some of the perceived drivers of corruption included the weak land law and implementation of regulations, lack of transparency, and lack of accountability. Thus, the study recommends: enforceable rules of land allocation procedures should be included in the land law; introduce mechanisms to monitor compliance to land regulations such as the ones in the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources Service Charter; and enhance transparency and accountability at public land institutions.