Maravi

Dora is wrong - Gen Miyanda

Dora is wrong - Gen Miyanda
Written by George Chellah
Friday, February 20, 2009 6:38:38 PM

COMMUNICATIONS and transport minister Dora Siliya is wrong because she has ignored or disregarded Cabinet guidelines and practices, Heritage Party (HP) president Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda has charged.

Giving his observations on the Zamtel and RP Capital Partners contract, Brig Gen Miyanda stated that he was shocked and exasperated by the casual and flippant manner in which the Vice-President, who is also Minister of Justice, had attempted to cover up what seems to be a pre-meditated scheme to circumvent Cabinet guidelines.

"There are times when it is advisable for the President to keep quiet; this is not one of those times. In fact where is the President? Has he gone back to Libya? Or is he now on his way to Timbuktu? This wrangle is now beyond Minister Siliya and Vice-President Kunda," Brig Gen Miyanda stated.

"Let the President show that he is the President and not wait for public debates on every national issue. It is the President who must issue the comprehensive statement, which the Vice-President promised but failed to deliver. His Vice has misinterpreted a simple government practice and custom on roles of ministers, deputies and other junior staff."

He stated that remarkably, the RP Capital Partners confusion had been created by the President himself, probably unknowingly.

"When President Banda appointed Mr George Kunda as Vice-President and Minister of Justice, he inadvertently created a two-headed monster which the Vice has taken advantage of and is mesmerising and confusing everybody, including the President. This has resulted in the creation of two centres for giving official legal opinion to the government, that is the Attorney General's and the Vice-President's offices," Brig Gen Miyanda stated.

"The government is supposed to have only one such centre for legal opinion, that is the Attorney General's Chambers. Because Vice-President Kunda is his Vice and a senior lawyer, the President who is but a lay person too, is bound to pay more attention to what his Vice says. It is the Vice-President who misled the President to announce prematurely that minister Siliya was on the right track. Minister Siliya was wrong; but Vice-President Kunda is double wrong because he has advised government wrongly. As to minister Siliya, she is wrong because she has ignored or disregarded Cabinet guidelines and practices. Although as minister she is the overseer of government policy in her ministry, she is not supposed to be involved in the day-to-day management and administration of the ministry as this is the preserve of the permanent secretary, who is the chief executive in the ministry.

"As regards decisions that have financial obligations, the rules provide that where the minister elects to overrule the permanent secretary, he or she must put this in writing, clearly stating that he or she accepts all responsibility for the course of action he or she has directed. This is because ministers are not allowed to commit the government to expenditure or financial obligations. After the Minister's letter to the PS, the PS should then act on the minister's instruction but at the same time report the matter to the Minister of Finance, the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament."

Brig Gen Miyanda, who is also a former Republican vice-president, stated that the penalty against a minister who ignores such guidelines was a surcharge of the money involved and/or dismissal by the President.

"It will be interesting to know whether such a letter has been written to the PS by minister Siliya assuming all responsibility in the RP Capital deal. But clearly she has been misled by the Vice-President who gave her a legal opinion, which belittled that of the Attorney General and which gave her the courage she has displayed in the National Assembly and outside. As to Vice-President Kunda, his siding with the Solicitor General and abandon the Attorney General is in bad faith. The Attorney General pronounced the Memorandum of Understanding a nullity. This is a very serious position taken by the Attorney General and the Vice-President should not have trashed that opinion. By his statement he has usurped Attorney General Malila's position. The least he should have done was to let the Attorney General make the statement himself," Brig Gen Miyanda stated.

"Further, as Vice-President he is supposed to defend and protect the President; he kept quiet for a very long time while the President was receiving blows left, right and centre. The Vice-President is the real culprit in this confused RP Capital saga, as it is clear now that it is him who wrongly advised the President to say that minister Siliya was on the right track and impliedly that the Solicitor General was right and the Attorney General wrong. He has provided fodder for a running feud between these two senior officials in his ministry!"

He stated that it was fallacious for the Vice-President to suggest that the Solicitor General could do whatever he wanted when the incumbent Attorney General was not available.

"This is not the practice; this is not the convention. It is equally questionable for the Vice-President to declare that the Solicitor General is the deputy to the Attorney General. This suggests ominously that as long as Vice-President Kunda remains Vice-President and Minister of Justice, we shall see Attorney General Malila constantly being sent on long errands to enable [Vice-President] Kunda to direct the Solicitor General to carry out whatever schemes he has. This further suggests that when the President is away, Vice-President Kunda will change matters in the country as he pleases.

This is totally wrong even when said by a learned State Counsel," Brig Gen Miyanda stated. "After the damage has been done, he is now trying to rescue the President, who is also a lay person. If he is so concerned about lay persons doing technical government work, he should not have advised that the [National Constitutional Conference] NCC should proceed the way it is doing, with more than 90 per cent lay persons deliberating and even re-drafting the legal Mung'omba document which has already been drafted by lawyers.

"He and his government were advised to arrange for a constituent assembly, which would essentially be full of lay persons with the mandate to state what the broad principles should be in the constitution. Look at the circus in the NCC now, where at every stage the commissioners are requesting for experts to explain things to them, all because of Vice-President George Kunda's advice to the government when he was Attorney General and Minister of Justice. Now he is busy undermining the incumbent Attorney General. Give Malila a chance to prove his mettle!"

Brig Gen Miyanda stated that Vice-President Kunda's lecture about lay persons was out of place and was certainly not the law.

"I say that even if the Minister of Transport and Communications was a lawyer, he would still be obliged to seek the Attorney General's legal opinion. I would go so far as to state that even transactions emanating from the Vice President's office would require to be vetted by the Attorney General; that is his constitutional mandate. The provision is not an insult nor is it intended to belittle other lawyers but is simply division of labour; it is recognition that too many cooks spoil the soup and the sooner the President realizes this the quicker he should act to rescue the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet," he stated.

Brig Gen Miyanda stated that the President must move quickly to extinguish the double-headed monster that he created.

"He must make up his mind what he really wants Vice-President George Kunda to be or to do. As regards the alleged offer of free service by Selex, this must be trashed with the contempt it deserves. Where these conmen give you two brooms and three shovels, you can be rest assured that they will receive in return one thousand brooms and shovels plus a tax free incentive," Brig Gen Miyanda stated.

"No business entity exists to conduct free services. This must be stopped; if the current law is not clear then the Minister of Justice must take to Parliament such a law that makes it expressly clear that gifts by business organisations to government will not be entertained and will be prima facie evidence of a plot to defraud or corrupt."

And Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde backed the decision by the civil society to petition the Chief Justice to probe Siliya.

"They are within their right. We have no objection to that as a federation. If the matter is of public interest it will only be fair that the tribunal is called because if it's not called it will be to the disadvantage of the accused. People must be free to go and give evidence so that this matter is put to rest," said Nonde.

"At the moment we don't know the truth, we don't know who is wrong and correct. There has been a debate on this matter, so if it's taken to the tribunal it will be better so that the truth is known."

Labels: DORA SILIYA, FFTUZ, GENERAL MIYANDA, JOYCE NONDE, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS

posted by MrK @ 6:38 PM