FORMER Southern Province Permanent Secretary, Gladys Kristafor who was arrested for alleged abuse of authority of office and failure to follow procurement procedures has appeared in court for trial before Livingstone magistrate Andrew Kasongo.
It is alleged that Kristafor 54, of plot number 4424 /199 Highlands area in Livingstone authorised the release of K997, 600 for the purchase of two second hand rehabilitated graders, for the Rural Roads Unit in Livingstone without seeking treasury authority.
This happened in Livingstone, between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011, when she was serving as Southern Province Permanent Secretary in the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD).
Testifying in the same case, Ministry of Finance budget Analyst Lazarus Mwelwa 41, of Lusaka’s Chamba Valley area told court that the controlling officer was supposed to seek authority from the Secretary to the Treasury before procuring the second hand rehabilitated graders.
Mwelwa explained that the procurement of graders was not budgeted for and that it was not included in the yellow book.
He told court that the funds released were for the rural roads rehabilitation and not for the purchase of the graders.
And during cross examination, defense lawyer Adrian Nkausu argued that it was not wrong for his client to procure graders which were supposed to be used for progressing works on the rural roads project which had stalled due to the breakdown of the graders.
Nkausu also asked whether there was no provision in the budget for emergencies such as the repair of broken down equipment.
In a statement, Anti-Corruption Public Relations officer Timothy Moono explained that Mrs. Kristafor in the first count charged with one count of wilful failure to comply with any law of applicable procedure or guidelines relating to procurement and tendering of contracts contrary to section 33(2) (b) of the Anti-Corruption Act number 38 of 2010 and in the second count, she is charged with abuse of authority of office contrary to section 99 (1) of the penal code chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia.
Unless she somehow personally benefitted from the deal, I suggest she gets off with a warning. Graders are an asset to the council. She may have overlooked procedure, and maybe jumped over some heads, which is wrong, but, maybe a warning should suffice. This fight against corruption is a good thing, but we should not make unnecessary sacrificial lambs..
“He told court that the funds released were for the rural roads rehabilitation and not for the purchase of the graders”.
So what are graders mainly used for? Is it not for work on the roads? She saw the need to buy these graders because they were needed in the rehabilitation of the rural roads.
main issue is abuse of authority of office.pipo lets follow the law.not instinct.
There is no abuse of authority but failure to follow procedures.
If one does not follow laid down procedures that is abuse of authority. This lady improperly used her authority to make a decision by virtue of her holding of a public office. When there are procedures to be followed there are no short cuts. It is through her position that she ordered the payments that had not been approved nor budgeted for. The lady as PS should have sought legal advice from the legal department in the Ministry than going on and doing it her own way
Can she explain and quote the authority that empowered her to make such a decision? Let her point to the Law, Regulations or Tender Procedures that gave her powers to purchase graders or any other equipment without seeking approve, then we take it from there
This was is how petty Sata was, hence having been condemned by UPND for unnecessarily instigating the arrest of anyone deemed undesired by him. Lungu has to undo all these evil acts of Sata and Winter Kabimba.
And did Sata and Kaseba “follow proceedures” when they bought all the expensive medical equipment to set up Satas PRIVATE HOSPITAL in State House?
This woman is in court for spending K1million on public equipment.
Satas hospital cost 100s of MILLIONS and for him ONLY! While UTH does not even have money for drugs!
This is why PF have to BORROW to make up the Budget DEFICIT!!!!
Not to worry: she will be found guilty, sentenced and then released on some frivolous health problem grounds. That is how ludicrous the country has become. Enough said.
PS was ill advised. Be careful when appointing cadres with poor background. Please release her she has no case to answer the party in power then authorised the purchases to be seen to be working. It is worse now we shall see how many will be persecuted.
Let us be fair in our dealings.
Waste of resources on this case. If the cost of the old graders did not surpass the cost of new graders, Why witch hunting? How the work would have been carried out without graders? Where they misused? they must have a gaurage/depot for repair and maintanace of equipment?
Ba LT, the heading says “appears in court for corruption” and yet the case is about not following procurement procedures. It does not say anywhere that she benefited from the procurement. Please use appropriate headings.
Can the Auditor General please comment on this?
Or must we stupid Zambians just keep on paying tax and not be consulted on how this money (OUR MONEY?!?) is used?
Prosecution of abuse of public money should start right at the top.
Starting with Kaseba and her unconstitutional payment. And her 300,000 dollar accommodation bill!
She was fired, was she not?
That should be the end of this story.
But if she benefitted through kickbacks, she should be punished as the court sees it fit.
The message is follow procedures unless you have authority to override. And always seek approved legal counsel before making financial splashes. Cover your asses.
We are saying that this country is poor when those in authority like ps keeps on abusing their positions they steal public funds and we must stiffen our laws so that these people do not go scot free