Maravi

Lupando distances himself from unconstitutional expenditure revelation

Lupando distances himself from unconstitutional expenditure revelation
By Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe
Friday August 15, 2008 [04:00]

FORMER vice-president Lupando Mwape (below) has said it is unfortunate that his name has been tied to the unconstitutional expenditure of K10 billion that his office incurred prior to the 2006 general elections. In an interview yesterday, Mwape who is now Zambia’s Ambassador to China said tying his name to the expenditure shows lack of understanding of the systematic operations of the offices of the President and Vice-President.

“The vice-president does not handle money directly,” Ambassador Mwape said. “What would happen then is I would say this is my programme and then the administrators at the secretariat at Cabinet Office would handle the rest. So when they bring in the name of the person, it is unfortunate.

The person who is vice-president does not even know the expenses that are incurred. What happens is when the vice-president is going somewhere, he does not even know how much is spent on accommodation and all the other administrative expenses as they are handled by the administrators.”

Ambassador Mwape said it was up to the administrators at Cabinet Office to have determined expenditure that was constitutional and unconstitutional at the time that he served as vice-president.

“That’s a matter that is supposed to affect Cabinet secretariat,” said Ambassador Mwape. “Anyone in the office of the controlling officer should have known whether the expenditure was constitutional or unconstitutional.

An individual cannot be brought into question unless it was a situation where I was asked how much I needed and then I said I needed so much for this and that then I would have been brought into question or my name would be brought in. So it is a lack of understanding of systematic operations of the Office of the Vice-President that has caused my name to be brought in.”

Ambassador Mwape was in Zambia this week until today when he leaves for China.

On Monday, the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates expressed shock at revelations that Ambassador Mwape during the time he served as Vice-President incurred unconstitutional expenditure amounting to over K10 billion from his ‘extraordinary’ travels during campaigns for the 2006 general elections.

Permanent Secretary for administration in the Office of the Vice-President Austin Sichinga said the over K10 billion was realised because President Levy Mwanawasa had delegated part of his job to Mwape.

Labels: LUPANDO MWAPE

posted by MrK @ 3:57 AM