Maravi

PF fails to account for K65m donor grant

PF fails to account for K65m donor grant
By Brighton Phiri
Thursday August 30, 2007 [04:00]

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) is the only political party that has not accounted for the K65 million collected from Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) support programme, diplomatic sources have revealed. According to the sources, all political parties that were accredited to ZCID had accounted for the funds they received from ZCID, apart from Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) whose financial report received some queries and PF, which had not accounted for any of the funds collected.

"All the parties have accounted for the funds but PF is seemingly facing some problems to account for the funds," said a diplomatic source.

According to the sources, PF first collected K60 million and later K5 million for sensitisation workshops among its members but that it had come to the attention of the donor community that some PF members of parliament were not aware of the money and how it was used.

"It is disturbing to hear some of PF members of parliament expressing their ignorance over the funds because they are key in the implementation of the good governance programmes being funded by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD)," said the source.

"So far, MMD and UPND have stood out to be efficient in their preparation of financial reports." ZCID executive director Chomba Chella declined to comment on the matter.

But when contacted for comment, PF president Michael Sata said some of his disgruntled members of parliament were behind the leakage of the information to the public. He wondered why his party had not been penalised if it had failed to account for the funds.

"We are not answerable to ZCID or Katele Kalumba. We are answerable to IMD. We have accounted for everything with IMD and not ZCID," an angry Sata. "If that is the way they want to get at us, then good luck for them. We will meet them head on." Sata said PF members of parliament did not run the party for them to be acquainted with the party's operational costs.

"Our MPs must be grateful because part of the same money they are talking about contributed towards making them who they are today. It is out of the same funds that the MPs are today driving expensive vehicles," he said. "Some of the MPs we did not even know them. Some of them became members of parliament by chance."

However, Sata attributed the mess of documentation between his party and ZCID to former PF secretary general Charles Chimumbwa, whom he accused of failing to manage the documentation properly.

"With now an efficient secretary general Mr. Edward Mumbi, we will recover because under Hon. Chimumbwa the party went to sleep," Sata said. He said Chimumbwa was facing serious business problems, which had contributed to his unstable political position.

When contacted for comment, Chimumbwa responded: "I have nothing to say since Mr. Sata has chosen to be an angel." Chimumbwa's Mofu Investment's manager Jaineck Chomba said Sata should be grateful to Chimumbwa because he funded PF activities at the time he most needed support.

"We find it difficult as a business organisation to accept Sata's attacks on Mr. Chimumbwa. We thought as a business, we assisted the party during difficult times," Chomba said.
"We paid for his tour of the Copperbelt Province together with PF cadres. Sata used to send people to get some money from us and yet today he is saying we are not a viable business."

Chomba cited a Nissan registration number AAV 8172 as the vehicle, which his company gave Sata to use during his campaign trails between 2002 and 2005.

He said it was unfair for Sata to undress Chimumbwa's business ventures. "Mr. Sata should be the last person to talk about Mr. Chimumbwa," Chomba said.

Labels: ACCOUNTING, PF

posted by MrK @ 4:39 AM