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Mulyata will be arrested soon - Nixon Banda

Mulyata will be arrested soon - Nixon Banda
By Edwin Mbulo
Thursday October 18, 2007 [04:00]

Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) director general Nixon Banda has disclosed that Southern Province minister, Joseph Mulyata, will soon appear in court to face charges of alleged abuse of authority. Banda also said there was no interference from President Levy Mwanawasa in Mulyata’s case.

Speaking in Livingstone on Tuesday night during the ACC organised Integrity in Public Life discussion forum held at New Fairmount Hotel, Banda said the ACC had received tremendous support from President Mwanawasa who has declared zero tolerance for corruption when investigating people in public office.

He said President Mwanawasa had not interfered in the operations of ACC but that the commission had a mere obligation to inform him so that he takes administrative action.

“I did mention that the case has reached an advanced stage and very soon you shall be hearing that the case is going to court,” said Banda in reference to his Livingstone’s Radio Musi-oa-Tunya talk show appearance on Monday.

“What is appearing in the press is like whenever there is a case involving some senior officer, then there is interference,” Banda said. “When we carry out investigations, we have received tremendous support from the President.

He has said that ‘let me know so that I take administrative arrangements’. It would not be fair for the President when he has travelled out to hear that we have arrested one of his ministers.”

The ACC has been investigating Mulyata over alleged abuse of authority of office following his intervention in the irregular release of an impounded bus belonging to Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) in July this year for absconding a weighbridge in Livingstone.

GBM was expected to pay a penalty fee of K7.9 million before the bus could be released. However, the bus was released without paying the fine.

And Banda said arising from the baseline report of 2004 which revealed that there was high level corruption in eight institutions, namely the Ministry of Lands, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), the Police Service, immigration department, the Pension Board, Lusaka, Ndola and Livingstone City councils, there was need to fight corruption from within the institutions.

Banda said the ACC was not running away from its operations by forming integrity committees but it was merely institutionalising the fight against corruption.

“We are not running away from dealing with the issues of corruption but we want the institutions to have in-house cleaning initiatives as it has worked in Tanzania where corruption levels in institutions is low,” he said.

Banda appealed to Livingstone residents to report corruption cases and stated that there were a lot of malpractices in land allocation in Kazungula.

“I was in Kazungula and just like the deputy mayor has highlighted here, the issues of land alienation come out,” he said.

And Livingstone deputy mayor Jorum Mwinde complained that islands on the Zambezi River had been given out to investors without regard for national security.

Mwinde said Ilombe and Sikoma Islands had been given out to a foreign investor and that the Islands had graves and shrines in Simonga, 10 kilometres west of Livingstone
“There is also a piece of land which was given out to a foreigner on title and is over the stipulated 250 hectares,” he disclosed.

In answering Mwinde’s concerns, Ministry of Lands chief lands officer, Darliso Siasumo, assured that he would check records in Lusaka to study the plans.

Siasumo said the islands could be allocated to investors for development but plans of developments must leave a piece of land facing a neighbouring country so that in case of security concerns, the government could move on site to occupy that land.

“If the plans were consented to by the chief and the council passed a resolution to process the titles and we discover that the land is over 250 hectares, we will advise the chief that we cannot allocate titles,” said Siasumo.

Labels: ACC, JOSEPH MULYATA, NIXON BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:45 AM