The Kalulushi Magistrate court has heard how United Party for National Development (UPND) Lufwanyama Member of Parliament Leonard Fungulwe was drawing a monthly salary in 2016 for four months amounting to more than K15,000 whilst working as a civil servant.
Appearing before Kalulushi Magistrate Chrisantos Chandi, was Mr Fungulwe 43, of Lufwanyama who is charged with two counts, namely fraud contrary to section 123 of the penal code cap 87 of the laws of Zambia and obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretenses contrary to section 309A of the penal code Chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia.
Raphael Simfukwe 49, of Kabangwe, Chibombo who is an Assistant Director at the Payroll Management and Establishment Control (PMEC) at the Ministry of General Education in Lusaka told the court that Fungulwe had worked for the government from 2001 up to 2016 when he left the teaching profession.
Mr Simfukwe said Mr Fungulwe, with a teaching number TS 801051 was an account holder with the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO) in Luanshya with a branch code of 010763 and holder of a National Registration Card (NRC) number 167434/65/1, had been receiving money illegally from the government from June to October 31, 2016 in form of salaries.
THE PMEC assistant director showed the evidence to the court in form of payslips which stated that Mr Fungulwe was getting the money despite knowing that he was not supposed to be drawing the salary because he was no longer a civil servant working as a teacher.
Mr Simfumfwe said in the month of June 2016, K3, 527 was sent into Mr Fungulwe’s account, July K3534 was deposited, August K3, 534, September K2, 267 and the month of October K2, 234 was also deposited without the parliamentarian notifying the Bank or the Ministry that he was receiving a salary as a teacher which he was not entitled to.
He said after the Ministry discovered that Mr Fungulwe was drawing the salary for four months he was removed from the payroll in November 2016 and up to now has not repaid any money back to the Ministry.
This is a matter in which Fungulwe was taken to court by a concerned resident Athanase Kaleleka, 57 a retired teacher of Lufwanyama, who resides near Lwansamba primary School and was represented by his lawyer Terence Chabu.
Mr Kaleleka said that he had decided to take the UPND law maker to court so that he pays back to the government the money that he had stolen without resigning from his previous position as a government teacher.
Mr Kaleleka said the opposition UPND law maker who was a teacher in Luanshya was teaching at Kakwaba basic school and was transferred to Chipata in the same capacity did not go to the Eastern province because he was secretly involved in political activities campaigning for the opposition UPND during the 2016 General elections.
Mr Kaleleka who also stood as a parliamentary candidate on the Patriotic Front ticket for the Lufwanyama seat in 2016 said he had not taken Mr Fungulwe to court because of losing the elections but did so as a concerned and patriotic Zambian who believes in transparency and accountability.
But Mr Fungulwe who is been represented by Milner Katolo of Paul and Milner company said his client had notified the Ministry of General Education by sending a hard copy of the resignation Letter to the Ministry on May 23, 2016.
Mr Katolo stated that his client had followed the right procedures by writing to the Teaching Service Commission which had acknowledged his resignation and wished him the best in his future endeavours.
The defence lawyer for the UPND parliamentarian said he was surprised Mr Fungulwe was taken to court when he had officially resigned from the Ministry of Education adding that he was not drawing a salary for a period of four months starting from June to October 2016.
Mr Katolo maintained that Mr Fungulwe had in fact written a letter to the Ministry of General Education at the Headquarters in Lusaka asking the officials at the Ministry to stop depositing the monthly salary in his account and to be removed from the payroll.
Magistrate Chandi adjourned the matter to February 12, 2018 for continued trial.
Why wasn’t he taken to court by the Assistant Director at the Payroll Management and Establishment Control (PMEC)? This case looks like sour grapes now.
The ministry of Finance is very inefficient. Poor working culture
The accounting system in the civil service is wack, am sure the human resource department delayed in informing accounts about his resignation, and usually in such cases the salary overpayment should be offset using his pension contributions. Simple and straightforward he is not the first civil servant to get salary overpayment.
Why waste time in court? Just offset the overpayment against his pension or other benefits. Unless people want to settle political scores. Maybe MoF should collaborate with NAPSA in such instances to ensure that such overpayments or monies owed to govt should be deducted from ones pension benefit.
Zambian that is the normal procedure, actually ministry of finance has confirmed that some workers in judiciary were overpaid in January, and it’s the ministries duty to rectify such anomaly, maybe the judge handling this case is one of them.
He should resign his parliamentary position it is the honourable thing to do …..if this is condoned it spills over into government once they form it. HH needs to have a word with him what he did was illegal and immoral and it shows his character. The UPND if they want to differentiate themselves from the other thieving parties this is the time.
All the remedies being suggested are symptomatic of what is wrong with the Zambian pension system. It is paternalistic!
No one should have access to an employer’s pension fund except the employee. An employer should be allowed to make contributions to an employee’s account but not to withdraw. Should an error be discovered in how an employee was paid, other means of recovery must be used. Deducting from an employee’s account does not only violate an employee’s property rights but also gives a free pass to erring financial officers. An employee must not lose the right to decide how his or money should be used under any circumstance.
By the way, unless stated in the terms of employment, an employee must have the freedom to put their retirement funds in investment vehicles…
If he broke the law please treat him just like you treated the ministers who illegally stayed in office during the 2016 elections. Charge them all
And this is UPND tongas think can do better than PF?my foot!!!many politicians are corrupt and love money too much!!
So this UPND crooked MP must be jailed!!
Why can’t pf jail itself for making wrong deductions on civil servants january salaries.
All you dream is tonga. You got serious demons brother, you suffering from tonga phobia. Lufwanyama is on the copperbelt and lambas where not wrong to vote for upnd.
njimbu, it is not tribal for frauds to be happening. All ministers that were told to pay back the illegal salaries, were their Tongas? Also have they paid back that money? They if anything are in contempt of court. Please let us stop this tribal talk as we are in grave danger of having a Rwanda incident here.
@Njimbu–Grow up, you shameless tribal bigot and neo-nazist. The Zambia government system is rotten to the core. It takes ages to remove one from the the payroll. If you do not want to coexist with other ethnic groups, find a [planet where there is only one ethnic group.
Tonga orgasms ba njimbu
When we professionals apply for jobs in this ministry to take sanity they don’t pick us. Our applications just rot in their registry and we wonder they always pick incompetent cadres. Ati you have to know someone. Smh.
Njimbu are the pf ministers who continued to draw salaries after parliament was dissolved and have been orderdd by the court to repay the monies complied..you are kwik to highlight others but cannot condemn your own members who have been found to have acted illegally.by your own assessment all the pf ministers should be jailed
NO SHAME IN AFRICA’S HEADQUARTERS OF CORRUPTION ZAMBIA.
Surely P.F officials continued to illegally draw salaries when Parliament was dissolved, of course buoyed, & encouraged by Chief client cash embezzler Chak0lwa.
QUESTION IS WHEN IS THAT CASH GONNA BE PAID BACK??
A rotten precedent has been set by Plunder Fraternity here!
If there’s proof that the money was credited to his account and he withdrew it, then he’s in trouble. He could have requested to have the matter settled outside of court than go to trial.
It’s your overzealous pf losing candidate who has taken this issue to court.
Two things 1) The guy should have been honest enough and should have sent the money back. 2) The GRZ systems must improve so as not to allow such things. Money is very tempting. I keep on comparing zccm to other government departments because of the flawless way it used to operate . If a person in Chililabombwe is terminated, the whole industry will have the information.
The defense lawyer for the UPND parliamentarian said he was surprised Mr Fungulwe was taken to court…… adding that he was not drawing a salary…………. then
The lawyer maintained that Mr Fungulwe had in fact written a letter to the Ministry’s HQ in Lusaka asking them to STOP depositing the monthly salary in his account……..WHAT DID HE STOP?
WHY WRITING A LETTER TO STOP IF THERE WAS NOTHING GOING INTO HIS ACCOUNT?
AS a law maker, the accused should not have taken that which does not belong to him. I, at one occasion was credited with some cash into my account and upon seeing that I went to the bank and questioned the transaction and it was reversed almost immediately. How come the law maker is still keeping what is not his? These are the same guys who put pressure for the ministers to pay back the money they earned for the work indeed done, saying they were in their offices illegally. The question one might want to ask is was he going to keep quiet as long as nobody raised some dust? The ministry deals with lots of people and the reaction from them may take a little longer but that does not warrant anyone to keep what is not rightfully his. Corrupt.
@Zambian is spot on
MoF should simply collaborate with NAPSA and recover monies from the id0t’s pension benefit. Period.
Njimbu you got passion hate for us we are the cream of Zambia my friend, you nincompoop
Mr Katolo stated that his client had followed the right procedures by writing to the Teaching Service Commission which had acknowledged his resignation and wished him the best in his future endeavours.
Mr Katolo maintained that Mr Fungulwe had in fact written a letter to the Ministry of General Education at the Headquarters in Lusaka asking the officials at the Ministry to stop depositing the monthly salary in his account and to be removed from the payroll.
Ba LT why do you have to emphasize that he’s Upnd?
Title should simply say MP illegally drew money. Your is misleading in that its like he stole because he’s Upnd. Sad part is he didn’t make an effort to return the money.
This is all political. This guy has an account into which salary from his previous employer and current employer was deposited. He resigned from his previous employer who continued to deposit money into his account despite his written request for them to stop. But he needs to withdraw money for use from the same account. If he has enough money left in his account, how can be accused of drawing a salary? Banks do not have permission to send back money deposited in personal accounts. He cannot withdraw cash to send to MOF. So what do you want him to do? MOF should work out a system to recover the over payments. Even Kalaba former minister of foreign affairs did not know how to payback his ‘illegal’ salary. Leave the man alone.
Long time Milner Katolo, from those days at ZIT. Great to see you’re around and doing something different.
Elyo aka kalupiya Katongo. Four months should be in the range of 80,000.
Similar with Thandiwe Banda, wife to RB who kept drawing teacher salary after being first lady and no longer teaching.
Why is it that PF is always bitter, even when they are in power? is it that they never expected it . you are told that he wrote to the MOE that he had resigned, again wrote the second letter asking them not to be depositing money into his account , but they continued sending . worse of it, his retired loosing political opponent sues him . and in his foolish, justification say he has done it because he is a patriotic Zambian , when we knows, he is just a useful ***** , how did he know when every thing is done in Lusaka ? he stays in the bush in lufwanyama . Mr kaleleka shame on you . Elyo imwe mwebalanda pamitundu muleumfwako insoni alainsoni ebuntu , nombamwalitinina lunshi pamenso tamwaba kakope , nifyofine mukafwa bamumpuwelwa . abaume bashikalilwa nsaka . chochise ,tayawama . icho…
I have read the contributions, some are generally childish and cadre based.
Let’s be objective if we want to develop this country.
As the ministry of education asked the former teacher to pay back?
As the former teacher refused to pay back?
These are simple questions that in a civilised society people can ask.
It’s this kind of selective application of the rule of law that makes it stinks
We witnessed the ministers remaining in their offices when the parliament was dissolved against the backdrop of disregarding the constitution.
Despite of the concourt passing judgement in favour of the ordinary people of Zambia, the people involved have refused to pay. If this former teacher or Opposition MP was in PF nothing could have been brought to court.
Zambia the real skull of…
Broken operational systems and there is probably more. He should pay back the money and punished for being dishonest. And the people responsible for the payroll should be excused from work, fired for incompetence.
PF loosing candidate nikalijo chabe even if ndiwe ka money kangena mu bank UNGAKANE ? RB Said it plainly that nchito ngati yabadwa boma yakupasa ungakane olo niweo SHAKAFUSWA? ITS NOT YOUR FAULT , LET THE ACCOUNTANTS BE PROSECUTED, ME IM STILL CHEWING KA MONEY FROM BURSERIES COMMITTEE BUT I LEFT UNZA 2015