| Zambia’s Sata orders grand corruption probe | Send to a friend |
| Saturday, 01 October 2011 09:53 |
 By Elias MbaoThe Citizen Correspondent Lusaka. Zambia President Michael Sata yesterday ordered a probe of all suspected corrupt deals entered into by his predecessor, Rupiah Banda’s administration.They include the privatisation of a phone company to Libyans and sale of a bank to South Africans.President Sata, 74, elected to office last week, also stopped export of copper without the central bank’s approval, and dissolved the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) over corruption allegations. Addressing a gathering that witnessed the swearing in of his Cabinet at State House in the capital Lusaka, President Sata directed his minister of Justice to investigate the Banda administration’s controversial sale of 75 per cent of the shares of Zamtel, the fixed phone line operator, to Libyan Government-owned Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP) for $257 million last year. “Zambians suffered to build Zamtel so it cannot just be given away for nothing,” President Sata said. The President also ordered the probe into a deal between the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) and Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) involving $98 million for the latter’s expansion projects. He also ordered an investigation into the sale of privately-owned Finance Bank Zambia to South Africa’s FirstRand for $5.4 million. “We want to see the sale of Finance Bank; was it transparent or was it fraudulent?” he said. The bank was sold earlier this month.The sale of Finance Bank had attracted public outcry and accusations that there was inside trading because the Bank of Zambia had contracted FirstRand to manage the firm during troubled times, but the South African firm ended up buying it. Mr Sata had warned during the campaigns that he would reverse the sale. In fuel sector, President Sata appointed his Patriotic Front (PF) party secretary general, Wynter Kabimba, who is a lawyer, and five others to investigate corruption at the energy regulator, ERB. “We have been buying fuel which has been purchased without tender,” said President Sata, adding that there were supposed to be price reductions of fuel that did not happen.The President announced: “I have with immediate effect dissolved the Energy Regulation Board. We want to bring transparency.” He indicated that he would extend investigations to state-run power utility– Zesco, saying there was corruption at the mega firm. The President directed his Home Affairs minister to assist the Zambia police investigate Mr Banda’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD)’s purchase of vehicles for campaigns.“We don’t want any revenge; we want what belongs to the people of Zambia to be for the people of Zambia,” President Sata said. There was also corruption in Zambia Revenue Authority over the purchase of MMD vehicles, the President said. President Sata said he wanted the reports on all the investigations within 30 days in line with his campaign promise to initiate development programme within 90 days. On the mining industry, where Zambia is the largest copper producer in Africa, President Sata banned export of minerals without the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) certification. “God, in His own wisdom, gave us wealth through minerals. Why should we just exploit it and leave it like that because of corruption? With immediate effect nothing will be exported out of Zambia unless confirmation certificate has been gotten from the Bank of Zambia,” President Sata declared. He added: “I would like to believe that our new measures will protect the (local currency) Kwacha.” President Sata came to power mostly with a vote from the urban poor, the unemployed and partially the rural dwellers with his promise of “more money in your pockets”. To this end, the populist leader ordered the upward adjustment of the minimum wage from the current $84 per month.“I want that minimum wage revised immediately,” he said. Almost 70 per cent of Zambia’s 13 million people live below a dollar a day. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
Comments
liberator.
RSS feed for comments to this post