Maravi

I signed rp capital Mou before reading – Dora

I signed rp capital Mou before reading – Dora
Written by Maluba Jere
Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:49:26 AM

COMMUNICATIONS and Transport minister Dora Siliya (left) yesterday told the judge Denis Chirwa Tribunal that she did not read the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which she signed on December 22, 2008 with RP Capital Partners. And Siliya said she signed the RP Capital Partners MoU instead of the ministry’s permanent secretary because she was simply not advised to do otherwise.

This is in a matter where former communications and transport minister William Harrington and ten civil society organisations had asked Chief Justice Ernest Sakala to set up a tribunal to investigate alleged corruption and abuse of authority of office involving Siliya.

During cross examination by one of the petitioners' lawyers Eddie Mwitwa, Siliya said she did not read the MoU on December 22 but that she read the draft of December 4, 2008 which was sent to the Solicitor General's office.

She said the agreement with RP Capital was still active and that RP Capital had started work in line with the MoU.

Siliya said it was not true that the December 22 MoU did not take into account the Solicitor General's opinion. She told the tribunal that she did not obtain the tender board approval when signing the MoU because it was not necessary.

Siliya also testified that she did not secure any written proof of funding from the ministry of finance for the agreement. She said according to the MoU, RP Capital was going to be entitled to five per cent of the realisation of the services it was asked to provide.

However, Siliya said there was no guarantee that RP Capital would get US $2 million as stated in the MoU. She explained that the government had not committed itself to giving RP Capital US $2 million, saying the position was subject to Cabinet approval as it relates to the sale of Zamtel.

She said the MoU with RP Capital was drafted by officials in the Ministry of Communications and Transport in particular the director of planning Nelson Nyangu.

Siliya further told the tribunal that she was not aware whether or not there had been any response to Thales Air Systems after the letter of notification was sent to them.

She also told the tribunal that Task Force prosecutor Mutembo Nchito approached her and told her that the permanent secretary Dr Eustern Mambwe was corrupt. She said this in relation to the allegations that were levelled against Dr Mambwe from some people within and outside the ministry and in the concerned taxpayer's anonymous letter to the minister and copied to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

"The other allegations were from a member of the Task Force, Mutembo Nchito, who came and told me that Dr Mambwe had fraudulently taken about US $3000 to facilitate the travel of himself out of the country when he was deputy permanent secretary in the ministry," Siliya said. "The words of Mr Nchito were that Dr Mambwe is very corrupt."

She also said the Auditor General's report of 2005 showed that Dr Mambwe had irregularly given himself a loan K400 million loan.

"The allegations, including the ones on the radars came from the ministry and Mr Nchito. Because it included a very senior official and I had to make a judgment," Siliya said. "There were many allegations but the main one was that of fraternising Thales."

Siliya said she was informed that Thales was fronted by a South African company and that Dr Mambwe and the director of procurement and supplies were aware of this.

She also told the tribunal that since the allegations seemed to coincide, there was a possibility that the letter by the concerned taxpayer could have come from the Ministry of Communications and Transport.

Siliya further said that she attempted to cancel the tender process for the radar but that the tender board refused. She denied having instructed the permanent secretary to retender the process but that the process should be suspended.

But according to an internal memo which she was asked to read before the tribunal from herself to Dr Mambwe, Siliya restated her earlier instruction that the bid must be redone.

Asked what she meant by having the tender redone, Siliya said it was to start the process again. She said Dr Mambwe misrepresented her instructions in her letter dated January 6, 2009.

Siliya also said Dr Mambwe had played a role in the MoU process because of the correspondences she kept sending to his office.

"My question is that: minister, why did you sign the MoU and not Dr Mambwe?" Mwitwa asked Siliya to which she responded that: "The simple answer is: I was not advised otherwise?"

Mwitwa then asked Siliya if at all the opinion that came from the Attorney General's chambers did not stop her from signing that particular document.

"Yes, my lord," Siliya responded.

Mwitwa then asked Siliya when she saw the letter from the Attorney General Mumba Malila dated January 5, 2009 and she said she saw it sometime between the 6th to the 10th of January.

Asked what her reaction to the letter was, Siliya said it was raising the same issues raised in the letter of November 21, 2008 from the Solicitor General Dominic Sichinga.

Siliya said she took it that Sichinga had not talked to Malila but that she did not take the initiative to enquire from Malila as to why he was sending another letter.

Mwitwa then asked Siliya if she still maintained what she said on the floor of Parliament that she had signed the MoU after all the concerns had been taken care of to which she said "yes."

Mwitwa further asked Siliya to look at Malila's letter and tell the tribunal to whom it was addressed to.

"My lord, it is addressed to the permanent secretary," Siliya said and Mwitwa told her as follows: "Would it be correct to state that the reason the letter was addressed to the permanent secretary, when in fact he did not sign the MoU, is because he was the right party to deal with the issue?"

Siliya responded, "not necessarily."

And Siliya in a letter dated December 11, 2008 addressed to Zambia National Tender Board director general David Kapitolo stated that the tender process should be suspended and a new one initiated. She told the tribunal that some officials from Selex went to her office to complain that they were not made aware of where they needed to deliver the bid documents.

Siliya said she immediately handed them over to Mukupa [director of procurement and supplies], saying she did not see it as a matter that concerned her.

"They were not looking for directions, they were complaining that they had taken their bid to the wrong place and therefore their bid was late and was there anything we could do," she explained. "...I think he was in the process of explaining and when Mr Mukupa came into the office, I said this is the right person you should be explaining to. Those were my words."

Mwitwa then asked Siliya if she was not suspicious by Selex's turn around to offer a free repair of the radar head at the Lusaka International Airport after they failed to lodge a bid for the supply of the new facility and having said the equipment was obsolete.

Siliya said at the time that Selex was making the free offer, she was fully aware that the other tender for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of the new radars was underway.

"In other words, you were suspicious about the turn around from Selex?" Mwitwa asked Siliya and she answered: "Yes, my lord."

She said the free offer was strange.

Siliya said she agreed to their proposal because the issue had been ongoing for a long time and that one of her officials told her that Selex wanted to restore their names following stories that the company had supplied a radar to Zambia, which had never worked.

Siliya also said she acted in the best interest of all concerned when she failed to bring to the attention former State House chief analyst for press and public relations David Kombe's corrupt advances over the e-governance tender to the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC).

Asked by Mwitwa why she failed to report Kombe on his advances on the e-governance tender, when she instructed her subordinates to cancel the new radar tender based on an unsigned anonymous letter, Siliya said the circumstances were different.

She said she did not report Kombe to the law enforcement agencies but just ignored him because she wanted to act in the best interest of all concerned.

Siliya also said she did not report Kombe to late president Levy Mwanawasa despite him having been part of State House.

Hearing continues today.

Labels: DORA SILIYA, EUSTERN MAMBWE, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS, SELEX SISTEMI INTEGRATI

posted by MrK @ 7:49 AM