Harrington eager to see Rupiah’s action on Dora

Harrington eager to see Rupiah’s action on Dora
Written by George Chellah and Patson Chilemba
Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:51:28 PM

DORA Siliya has even been engaged in a more serious offence of violating the Republican Constitution, former communications and transport minister William Harrington said yesterday.

And one of the petitioners' lawyers Wynter Kabimba has said Siliya can no longer continue to be a Cabinet minister.

Meanwhile, the tribunal report has stated that Siliya's involvement in the issue of the radar tender is against the guidelines in the Cabinet Handbook.

Commenting on the judge Dennis Chirwa chaired tribunal, which found that communications and transport minister Siliya breached Article 54 sub Article 3 of the Constitution when she selected RP Capital Partners Limited to valuate the assets of Zamtel without following legal advice from the Attorney General, Harrington saluted the tribunal for the report.

"Firstly, it will be premature for me to make a comment right now because I’m not privy to the details of the tribunal report and the recommendations. But going by today's press report, I want to say firstly, I salute the tribunal for the report and the recommendations and I want to say these judges are learned and honourable persons who have been given the assignment to investigate the allegations against the honourable Minister of Communications and Transport," Harrington said. "So having said that I want to say that...in fact what pleases me about the report so far is that what has come out through the investigations is that the honourable minister has even been engaged in a more serious issue, which has been established by the tribunal. And that is the violation of the Constitution, which is a supreme law of the land in the way she conducted herself in the matter of the RP Capital Partners of Cayman islands in the valuation of the Zamtel assets prior to privatisation."

He said Siliya conducted herself in violation of the Constitution in that she disregarded the recommendations of the learned Attorney General.

"Now this is a very serious offence in as far as the Constitution is concerned because anybody, any public officer who takes oath of office and swears to defend the Constitution not only in front of the Republican President when she is sworn in or he is sworn in as a minister, but in front of the Speaker of the National Assembly when being sworn in as MP in the House. It is a serious offence," Harrington said.

He said he looked forward to see how President Rupiah Banda, who initially supported Siliya’s actions over this issue, would handle the matter in view of the tribunal's findings.

"I will be interested to see because I noticed from the report that the tribunal have left that matter that is the violation of the Constitution to the discretion or discretionary powers of the Republican President," Harrington said. "I will be very interested to see and to learn how the President is going to handle this matter of violation of the Constitution by his Minister of Communications and Transport because after all it's interesting also that the President himself supported her actions. If you recall, both the President and the Vice-President supported the minister and even referred to her as a very smart person. So now it remains for us to be seen."

He commended The Post for carrying a verbatim report of the tribunal sittings.

"I want to commend The Post for carrying a verbatim report on the sittings because this will give the opportunity to us laymen and those interested Zambians out there who want to make their own judgment not withstanding the judgment of the tribunal or the ruling of the tribunal. Other persons who may have their own opinion will be able to make it through the verbatim reports as stated by The Post newspaper, but let us wait and see," Harrington said. "It's premature for me and I’m sure that the complainant and the first complainant...you are aware that there is a consortium of ten non-governmental organizations or civil society who have also petitioned. So I hope that I expect them...I have not consulted my lawyers to find out their views but let's wait and see. I’m sure that at an opportune time there will be a joint response to the findings of the tribunal. But so far in principle, I respect what the tribunal has done."

And Kabimba said the Constitution should be invoked on Siliya, following the findings of the tribunal which was set up to probe her.

"I’m not sure whether or not the President has any discretion with somebody or anybody who breaches the Constitution of our land. There is nothing to study because the findings of the tribunal are clear and the fact is that she breached the Constitution, which she swore to uphold," Kabimba said. "So the Constitution should be invoked and that means that she can no longer continue to be a Cabinet minister because she has breached the Constitution."

The tribunal, which presented its report to President Banda at State House on Thursday, found that Siliya breached Article 54 sub Article 3 of the Constitution when she selected RP Capital Partners Limited to valuate the assets of Zamtel without following legal advice from the Attorney General.

The tribunal stated that: "if a sitting President breaches the Constitution, he is liable to impeachment under Article 37 of the Constitution. In this case, by ignoring the legal advice of the Attorney General, Hon Dora Siliya breached Article 54 sub Article 3 of the Constitution".

In conclusion, the tribunal stated that: "in the present case we leave Hon Dora Siliya's breaches to His Excellency the President to deal with".

The RP Capital allegation against Siliya was heavily defended by President Banda and Vice-President George Kunda who respectively said she was smart and more intelligent than those criticising her and that she followed the Arttoney General’s advice which was given through the Solicitor General.

And according to the tribunal report on the airport radar systems allegations, Siliya's attempts to have the tender awarded to Thales Airs Systems cancelled was rejected by the Zambia National Tender Board because it had no basis.

The tribunal stated that they accepted that when Siliya was appointed communications minister, the process of acquiring the new radars for Livingstone and Lusaka international airports were in progress and that she only got involved after she received a letter from a concerned taxpayer.

"From the evidence, it is clear that she wanted the tender process re-done and asked the Zambia National Tender Board to suspend the process. There was no evidence led to show that she cancelled the contract with Thales Air Systems S.A. In fact, to date no contract has been executed with Thales Air Systems S.A. What is in place and which was refused to be cancelled was the offer of the tender to Thales Air System S.A. Her attempts to have this offer cancelled was rejected by the Zambia National Tender Board because it found no basis to do so as the whole tender process followed the laid down procedures and regulations...," the tribunal reported.

The report further stated that Siliya's attempt to suspend the tender process was not successful.

"The allegation is not attempting to cancel the contract but that she cancelled the contract. Reference was made by Counsel for the Consortium of Civil Societies to Section 75 of Public Procurement Act, which creates an offence. But a commission of that offence does not amount to breach under Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act in its present form. If the Civil Societies wanted to complain against the breach of the section, the complaint should have been directed to the appropriate authority to investigate," stated the report. "However we do agree that the manner of Hon. Dora Siliya's involvement in the issue of radar tender is against the guidelines in the Cabinet Handbook, especially clauses 8. 2. and 8. 4. But breach of Cabinet Handbook does not amount to a breach of the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act, which is the Jurisdiction of the Tribunal. All in all, we find no evidence to support this allegation."

Siliya was being probed for abuse of office for cancelling a tender awarded to Thales Airs Systems for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of a Zambia Air Traffic Management Surveillance Radar System (ZATM-RADAR) at Lusaka and Livingstone international airports. She was also alleged to have defrauded Petauke District Council over her claim of a refund of K12.5 million for two hand pumps for two boreholes that were sunk in Nyika ward when the actual cost of the pumps was K5 million. However, the tribunal did not find Siliya wanting on both allegations.