The Committee of Citizens ( CoC ) Executive Director Gregory Chifire says his organisation needs a proper explanation of how the US$ 13.5 million spent on second republican president Fredrick Chiluba’s corruption case was used.
Mr.Chifire said this following government’s revelation of the amount used by the Task Force in Dr. Chiluba’s case on both local and foreign lawyers recently.
He expressed concern that the amounts mentioned were huge and Zambians deserved to know how they came about.He said it was surprising that former Chairperson on Task Force Max Nkole who was in charge of the case was disputing figures released by government.
Mr. Chifire was speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.
He said that the committee is in possession of the letters written by Mr. Nkole asking for the discontinuation of cases.
Mr. Chifire has therefore asked Mr. Nkole to come out clean because the committee and Zambians as a whole need to know how exactly the money was spent.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chifire has called for a thorough audit of the Task Force for Zambians to be able to decide if corruption was fought in a holistic manner.
Mr. Chifire observed that the huge amounts of money that were used could have benefited a lot of Zambians through social infrastructure.
He stated that the money could have been used to build about 210 medium sized schools and 126 medium sized health centers which could have benefited the Zambian people.
Mr. Chifire also expressed concern about what he called the luxurious lifestyles of former Task Force officials which is way above what they were earning.
He has called on parliament to pass legislation that will ensure that civil servants get to account for their assets by declaring what they own in a transparent manner.
Mr. Chifire also stated that there should be a law to compel civil servants to lead lives that conform to their incomes.
ZANIS
Here we go again , jail these ipo ASAP.
L.T why do u even give them coverage? these r briefcase NGO’s tryin to get funding.but there cause is real
If the money is from the tax payer, they need to know how it was spent.
The money was spent the only missunderstanding here is that people keep thinking the whole $13 million was paid to the nchito brothers. I believe there where a lot of people involved in this case including Kunda and other so called witnesses that had to travel to the UK to appear in court.
The issue here in my opinion is not that the money was stolen or misapproprieted, the issues is that a lot of money was paid out and a prosecution should have been satisfyiung but it never happened.
To start the appeal you take into account how much you will have to spend again and honestly looking at those figures even i would say call it a day.
I feel the problem is the manner that some of this info is communicatd to the public where most a simple minded & dont take time to understand
Mu Zambia almost everyone is a director. Running some NGO or something. Director this , director that, no wonder everyone wants to be presidents. Why do we even cover some of these spaza organisations. we need industries not NGO’s.
At this rate I foresee a situation where another taskforce will be established to audit the Chiluba taskforce. This new taskforce will in turn gobble enough cash and this will lead to yet another Taskforce being instituted to investigate how the Audit taskforce embezzled resources. The cycle will then continue, taskforce after taskforce!!
Wouldn’t be surprised if another $30 Mills is spent to investigate where the $13.3 went!
Iwe Gregory Chifire, bushe what type od dagga do you smoke?
The lawyers were engaged by the government, hence its government duty to give a proper account of how the money was used since there are still some unsettled legal fees. Could you Gregory Chifire ask the Glob Trotter, Rupiah Banda on his return to furnish the nation on the breakdown of the $13m and how much of it was government coffers as we are meant to believe that the Task Force was donor funded.
It seems only Bwezani knows about this expenditure as the government spokesman is ndwiiiiiii.
These were public funds, whether donor funded or not. Therefore we need to know what transparent process was undertaken by the Task force in the hiring of the lawyers both locally and abroad. This is even more important because one of the foreign lawyers who benefited from the corruption that was involved in the appointment of Lawyers at the Task Force was a brother to a Government leader of one of the Donor Countries. If there was no transparent process then the Task Force was engaging in corruption. Also the fact that it was not a legally constituted entity, the task Force should be charged with illegally taking government money. Can Mutembo explain how his own corruption is different from the corruption he was prosecuting? Since of late The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) likes to make
Since of late The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) likes to make position statements in Post Newspapers, I challenge LAZ to explain the difference in the corruption at the Task Force involving their members Mutembo and other and the corruption that Mutembo was prosecuting Chiluba. I am extremely disappointed by the comments attributed to LAZ President Lungu in The post Newspapers when he stated that the amount of the fees is not an issue. It clearly shows Lungu and The Post Newspapers and indeed Mutembo’s lack of understanding of how public institutions operations are different from private companies. In Public Institutions, absence of transparency process, then there is misprocurement and corruption as is the case with these Task Force Legal fees.
if it is right for nchito and his fellow half baked lawyers to squander an astonishing 13 million dollars,whats wrong with chiluba punching a meagre 500 pin usd.muleba fair bafi t o le
The government was disbursing the funds so they should even provide the breakdown.
Mr Maxwell Nkole challenged and called Rupiah Banda a LIAR for giving fictitious or wrong figures.
So, the balls are in Rupiah Banda’s court to answer to the challenge.
#7 Yankee Muntu, that’s a good one.
This is why in taxes & budget allocation should always be kept to a minimum so as to avoid overspending by certain organs of the government. Why did the gov’t wait until such a huge sum is entirely consumed before double-checking how it is being spent??? I smell a few rats!
This is to prof.Kyambalesa is a sign of a country going dictatorial.
DEC Nabs NGO Officials
THE Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has arrested two non-governmental organisation (NGO) officials who allegedly transferred K200 million from the organisation’s account to their personal favour, Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani has said.
The commission has also closed in on officials from four other NGOs for similar activities and will soon effect the arrests.
Mr Mangani said in Lusaka yesterday that the DEC arrested Family Health Trust (FHT) executive director John Munsanje and Harrison Chibale, who is the finance and administration manager at the same organisation.
Mr Mangani said in an interview that three motor vehicles and several pieces of property were confiscated in connection with the alleged fraud by the duo.
He said the two, while acting together, transferred the K200 million from the FHT bank account to their personal accounts.
Mr Mangani said the funds from donors were intended to provide support to the various vulnerable children and other humanitarian activities.
He said it was unfortunate that, instead of the NGOs using the money for the intended purpose, some of them were busy siphoning it into their personal bank accounts, which was illegal.
A fortnight ago, Mr Mangani said the Government had unearthed a scam in which some NGOs in Lusaka had received about K148 million on the pretext that it was for the underprivileged as well as good governance activities.
Mr Mangani said, recently a K64 million cheque and another one of K85 million, were released to the two NGOs for the purpose of good governance and assisting the needy but after the money was cleared it was transferred into two individual accounts.
As a result of that, Mr Mangani said yesterday, the DEC had taken up four cases involving NGO officials.
He said the four NGOs who were part of the 17 opposed to the acquittal of former President Frederick Chiluba were allegedly using the diverted funds to fund political activities.
Mr Mangani said he had instructed the DEC to professionally handle all the cases so that the potential suspects did not cry foul when they would be prosecuted.
He said as organisations that preached accountability and transparency, the NGOs should be in the forefront living by that score but it was unfortunate that some of them did not practice what they preached.
On the Zambian Airways investigation, Mr Mangani said the law enforcement agencies would soon conclude the matter as they were finalising some issues.
He said because of the sensitivity and complexity of the case, the investigations had taken long but promised that soon, he would announce the way forward.
First of all the other day Max Nkole gave and broke down how much task force had spent and wher the money was coming from. And He mentioned it clearly just as the donors mentioned earlier such as the U.K mentioned how much they wer giving to Zambia to fight corruptions. These things are plain clear. and infact if max Nkole is answerable to anyone it should be the Donors to complain. BUt the Donors having being updated as to how much money was being used they Congratulated the work that was being done by the task force. And were against the disbandling of it just after RB mentioned made the statement and wondered as to whether the ACC would be able to work as Mr. Nkole and the task force did. Some of these people are just time wasters. Go to the donors they have the financial reports of TF
#6, you 100% right. It is a circus always in Zambia. As it is in politics so as it is in ngos. The same chaps want to have every thing always. Chech carefully they are family trees all over the show. Please the poor keep on praying God has already head our cries and soon very soon they will pay heavy for pretending to serve the poor yet it is their bellies they were serving and that is of their family trees. This is even how they are rewarding themselves. Only retirees are being appointed to big positions either locally or in foregn services. Let every intelligent child of zambia take note of this! amen!
isn’t this $13.5m more than the man was acccused of stealing?
Another US$13.5m has been spent to prosecute Kabwela! They (the Party and Its Government) are going to appeal such national interest cases of prominent news making characters such as Cde. Sata, Madam Kabwela, Rev. Nyondo and my case! (I haven’t committed it yet ka)! As for the Task force, I equally hear from my sources that the former employees have refused to work under the new revised and reduced conditions of service. No more post paid cell-phones for officers, mini-bus- no booking! Even decoders are being switched off in Sikanza and Multi Choice is now advising subscribers to pay in advance when they have ‘beulard’! In times like this it would free for 3 months!
the task force won a case in london worthy 40 million dollars to be repaid back by chiluba and george kunda was part of this under levy, now why are they saying the money spent on prosecuting chiluba is too much? why has kunda suddenly become afraid to register the london court judgment? chifire shud equally talk about this or else he should muzzle his foul smelling mouth. he shud equally go and complete at CBU than pretending he is a graduate
There is no criminal prosecution you are going to start in Zed if you start putting a cost to each case, we do not have plea bargains here, if you steal a goat worth 50 pin in some village in Shantumbu, we will send 4 police officers with a GX to investigate that case and call witnesses to court on not less than 5 occasions, add Magistrate costs and the prosecutors and the 50pin goat will certainly not cover the cost of the case, so please leave out the costs, also FTJ had a number of cases pending litigation, these will never see the light of day, fortunately for abena Ngumbo.
#8MULE- I wish this Chifi chatile could read your posting. I mean, how can some one fail to understand that this $13m was not just heaped somewhere in hard cash where Mutembo and Nkole would just pick from it like ubowa. What ever these gentle men got was paid by the government officers. Infact apart from Levy and Tetamashimba most of the ministers are alive and still working for the government. That is why “educated” ministers like Felix Mutati have not made any comment on the matter- they dont want to just cadre out figures which they cannot substantiate. GRZ must publish documents paterning to this $13m if they are to be believed.otherwise its just chacha politics
greg you have some unfinished business with The Ministry of education. It is never too late, go back to C.B.U. Too much of politics will do you know good.
Executive Director of ……………..
Love of titles eh?
There’s nothing to explain here. $13m is a small amount in legal fees. The question should be, what is the truth, did FTJ steal or not. Only him can tell you that. Not lawyers. Remember Eric Silwamba was his adviser.
This cifire guy is an MMD kaponya who is supporting RB blindly mainly because they hail from the same province – the wako ni wako syndrome. Most of the time what he says does not make sense. It is only in Zambia where such a clown can get media coverage. I am glad I am not living in that country which has become the joke of the SADC region.
Carrot-&-Stick Politics of Tribe!