Green Party President Peter Sinkamba and his Vice Clement Tafeni will on Thursday morning meet EU Delegation Liaison Officer on Human Rights Defenders Mr. Robert De Raeve and Focal Point Ms. Johanna Stratmann to discuss various governance issues. Top on the agenda is the controversial procurement of 42 Fire Engine Trucks from Spain at the cost of US$42 million. The meeting will be at the Delegation Head Office in Lusaka.
Last month, the Green Party wrote to the President of the European Partners against Corruption and the European contact-point network against corruption (EPAC/EACN) through the Secretariat hosted by Austrian Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption to seek assistance from the network to establish whether or not there was active or passive corruption in respect of procurement of 42 Fire Engine Trucks from Spain at the cost of US$42million.
The trucks were procured through Grand View International Limited, a Zambian company. The supplier is an undisclosed Scania manufacturer or agent in Spain. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for Scania Automobiles is Scania AB which is based in Sweden. The procurement from Spain, instead of Sweden, has stirred controversy among Zambians with many suspecting the amount is outrageous.
Most stakeholders suspect there was an act of active or passive corruption in this transaction. Government has defended the controversial procurement arguing it received value for money.
Meanwhile, President Edgar Lungu has called for the investigations. The President and his Vice President Inonge Wina have urged those with useful information to submit such to the investigations wings for scrutiny.
The Green Party suspects that the transaction is irregular in many respects, including non-compliance with EU rules. The Party also suspects the possibility of money laundering or illicit financial flows which could negatively impact on EU financial interests and thereby contravene Article 1 of Council Regulation 2988/95.
“For these reasons, through EPAC, we want to get to the bottom of the matter in an independent, impartial, legitimate, accountable, transparent, and accessible manner,” President Sinkamba stated in his letter to the President of EPAC/EACN.
“We believe the EU has a responsibility of preventing the use of the EU financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorism financing. In this regard, we implore EPAC to trigger the Corruption in the Private Sector Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA which criminalizes active and passive corruption directly or through an intermediary or in any transaction where an undue advantage of any kind has taken place,” President Sinkamba said.
“It is hoped that deployment of international legal instruments and mechanisms, from a professional perspective, could help establish facts. We hope EPAC will be united in on this issue with a common goal of establishing active or passive corruption on this transaction,” he added.
EPAC is an independent, informal network bringing together more than 60 anti-corruption authorities and police oversight bodies from Council of Europe Member Countries.
Great work Sinkamba and the Greens. I like the Greens approach to politics: mature, constructive, intellectual, high-level
Fantastic and very well thought of!!!
HH Should learn from this other than just raising newspapers and saying the same things that are shared here on this forum.
Sinkamba faka pressure, you have demonstrated that you are a man of actions.
If this Green Party had used Cassava as their trade mark, and not marijuana, they could have been a top party.
Seriously, their articulation is better than UPND.
Well done green party. This is the reason why all opposition political parties must work together in a complimentary manner because there is no party big or small which holds a monopoly of knowledge and wisdom on checks and balances. To PF the game is now on. Time to own up. We want to know which EU company sold us those wheelbarrows at $1m each.
The government should have put this issue to rest by asking the President to hold a special press conference and explain why the purchase was justified. Especially that his name has been associated with the scandal. He should have faced the problem head on. The magnitude of the amount involved is so huge for the authorities to continue to ignore the issue.
ECL can’t have a press conference on this issue and they were thinking or hopping it will go away like most corruption allegations do
It is the job of the ACC to hold a press conference and explain – not the President.When you start asking the President to be everywhere and answer for everything, that’s how you weaken institutions of governance.
That will be the day! ECL having a press conference and getting questions from the independent press? You must be joking.
Good strategy sinkamba ,this is what we call checks and balances, not what we are seeing from the upnd, always fighting ,mayor accusations without substance.
Zambia is our country and we want the truth to come out weather one is PF or not. Not what we are seeing from kambwili ubushilu bweka bweka.
Well done Peter, can you share some of the stuff with HH and his team, maybe they can wake up and think the way the green party thinks…..
These trucks probably didn’t even come from Spain..
This is an intelligent way of handling matters. Once the truth comes out that there was corruption, the President will have no option but to have every government official involved in charged appropriately him being the head of government, then ACC also should pursue everyone involved in both government officials and the suppliers for corruption. The supplier can only come out clean if he is just a preferred seller without strings anywhere suggesting undue influence. Those found wanting should be handled using the law like any other ordinary Zambian. The country should be allowed to move on whilst others learn from this. Green party you are really an option worth looking at. Please change the dagga symbol to have a nationwide appeal.
Big companies have distributors – it is near impossible to buy from the maker. This is standard practice. To think that it is suspicious from a dealership is ignorance and should not be a basis of suspicion. Concentrate on the figures.
@abilima distributors are appointed by the manufacturers to sell their products on their behalf at agreed prices. There are strict rules that govern such contracts to avoid over pricing amongst other things which may damage their reputation and cause them to lose business. There is no manufacturer in the EU who would allow such blatant theft on a public tender as this could have serious legal consequences on their business.
I have lost confidence in Zambia’s justice system.They are all corrupted by Lungu and his cabal of criminals. Perhaps we should with regret resort to taking our cases to EU courts or the commonwealth.
Abilima, the problem is that the president is everywhere,,,everywhere but here in zambia being responsible for what happens in this country. He is the CEO of the country ( or should be when he is in it) so the buck stops with him
I remember in 2005 levy requested for some Christmas cards to give out to ministries and diplomats serving in Zambia. The budget for the cards from state house was k500 000. After the purchase the invoice which was sent to state house k5 million. The point here is that the elements in the procurement chain are the ones who are thieves. Ecl has done a good thing to call for proper investigation in the fire truck scandal.