THE US$100 million TFM Holdings contract to construct prefabricated hospitals in Zambia has taken a new twist with Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary (Technical Services) Lackson Kasonka admitting that in fact, the contract was signed by the new deal administration and not the Patriotic Front (PF) government.
Prof Kasonka has disclosed that a ministerial committee had been constituted to consider the contract and that it was decided that it would be prudent to award the contract to TFM contrary to assertions by Sylvia Masebo, the Health Minister that she did not know anything about the contract.
The admission by Prof Kasonka is also contrary to his assertions that the contract was signed by the previous government and that former Health Minister Dr Jonas Chanda had been pushing for the contract.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week, Prof Kasonka revealed that the US$100 million contract was indeed signed during his tenure and that of his boss, Sylvia Masebo, the Health Minister.
The Ministry of Health has since cancelled the contract for its own convenience and the State is likely to lose a whooping US$40 million as a result of the cancellation of the contract.
Prof Kasonka said on September 3, 2020 the Ministry of Health received an unsolicited proposal from TFM limited of South Africa to construct and equip seven of the hospital at a cost of $100 million
He said the Ministry of Health was directed by the ministerial committee to conduct market research to determine the price reasonableness of the offer TFM had offered so that they would negotiate with the company.
On November 6th, 2020, TFM Holdings summited a bit valued at $99 million but the procurement was put on hold. In June 2021, a committee was constituted and asked TFM Holdings to extend the period of the bid for the further 90 days. The committee recommended that TFM Holdings be awarded the contract at a revised cost of $98 million,” Prof Kasonka said.
He explained that on May 4th, 2022, the Ministry of Health engaged TFM Holdings to construct infectious disease hospitals in Zambia which were to be completed within a period of 24 months.
After denying that she did not know TFM Holdings or ever meeting its chairman Mcebisi Mlonzi, David Diangamo revealed that in fact the Health Minister had met the TFM owner twice, with the first meeting being at her residence in Lusaka.
Mr Diangamo, the former Deputy Secretary to Cabinet (Finance) revealed that he had personally escorted Mr Mlonzi, the South African business mogul to Ms Masebo’s residence after picking him from Pamodzi Hotel.
Mr Diangamo said he was shocked that Ms Masebo had suddenly disowned the US$100 million TFM Holdings contract when in fact she was fully appraised and approved the deal as prudently reasonable and competitive.
Ms Masebo has been denying ever knowing or meeting Mr Mlonzi and that she was not aware of the US$100 million TFM Holdings contract which saw President Hakainde Hichilema dismiss Dr George Magwende, as Permanent Secretary of Health for administration.
And the looting continues….looting reloaded. …so it was just change of color from green to red….ooh ok
It will be like after MMD won in 1991, by the time most people will be awake they would have looted and sold off most assets at a song for their own benefits
The issue is not so much which administration signed the contract, but that Minister Masebo told us that she was not aware of the TFM Contract, and that she never met TFM owner Mlonzi. Going by what the PS has stated, the evidence must be there to show, by way of signature on the face of the contract document of course, who signed this contract.
Given these revelations, what conclusions can we reach about the bribe allegedly solicited by the Minister from Mlonzi, and the Minister’s denials thereof? What about our show of confidence in the Minister seen, among others, by her continued stay in office?
yes busy saying the GRZ has no money and yet zambia is losing millions of dollars in cancelled contracts what a sad development, the bigger question is why meet contractors at home? why was the minister refusing to never had met the TFM guys? why did she quickly conceal the contract? why were they saying the contract was signed by Hon jonas chanda? so many questions but with no answers. so what we heard in the media could be true that the UPND health minister solicited a so called bribe for the minister to sign the contract, where is the ACC and DEC action is need i believe
Minister of health needs to resign or be fired. Even if she is not guilty of receiving a bribe she is still guilty of lying and making us lose money due to cancelation of the contract. This woman was never supposed to be appointed as her name was already tainted during MMD when she purchased those hearses at an inflated price of $27000 each instead of the quoted price of $9000 thereby pocketing the difference.
I was wondering why the best and most expensive lawyers in the land were hired!
If these revelations are true, Mr. President this is your first casualty
We don’t want a repeat of the previous crookedness, kanshi mwacenjelafye pakanwa?
Why accommodate a contractor at home? Very shameful