Zambia’s Auditor General Sichembe Arrested on Graft Charges.

Zambia’s anti-graft agency arrested and charged the country’s auditor general, accusing him of engaging in corrupt practices involving more than 1.1 million kwacha ($54,475). 

The charges filed against Dick Sichembe include obtaining goods under false pretenses, conspiring to defraud the government and theft, the Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement Thursday. 

Sichembe, 52, allegedly committed the offenses between 2018 and 2021 while serving as the southern African nation’s accountant general and subsequently as auditor general. He was released on bond and is due to appear in court soon. Sichembe said he wasn’t immediately available to comment when called on his mobile phone. 

The arrest of the top official charged with checking whether state finances are correctly utilized comes at an awkward time for Zambia, which is in talks with international creditors. It plans to rework $12.8 billion of external loans under the G-20 common framework after it became the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign defaulter in November 2020.