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ACC probes new envoy to Japan

ACC probes new envoy to Japan
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:41:46 PM

THE Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating newly-appointed Ambassador to Japan for alleged abuse of office and corrupt practices. According to government sources, Dr Lewanika is being investigated over his appointing of managers to implement the US $24 million donor-funded Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) project contrary to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the government of Zambia and cooperating partners [donors].
ACC acting director general Rosewin Wandi confirmed the investigations.

"But I don't think it is fair to divulge further details because that will jeopardise the inquiry, but the inquiry is open and ongoing," Wandi said.

According to the MoU signed between the government of Zambia and cooperating partners [donors], adequate and qualified IFMIS managers must be competitively recruited originally and that they should not be civil servants.

But Dr Lewanika last year, during the time he served as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, removed the managers that were competitively recruited and replaced them with civil servants without following guidelines such as advertising for the vacancies and informing the cooperating partners, who are supposed to issue a notice of objection or no objection when IFMIS managers were recruited.

But last week when contacted for comment, Dr Lewanika referred all queries to Secretary to the Treasury, Likolo Ndalamei.

"Basically I have no comment, as you know I am no longer PS [permanent secretary] but ask the ST [secretary to the treasury], anyway there is nothing new with this matter [allegations], maybe The Post newspapers have friends at IFMIS who are telling you lies, but to me the nation is more important than individuals, so just do your homework and research properly," said Dr Lewanika.

The overall objective of the IFMIS project was to contribute to the efforts of the government in improving capacity to effectively and efficiently mobilise and utilise public resources [improve public expenditure management] and to strengthen overall financial accountability.

This development would have entailed the ministry of finance headquarters and the office of the Auditor General to be able to monitor all accounting procedures in ministries and government departments around the country.

And phase one of the project was to commence ‘go live’ in April 2008 on a pilot basis involving eight sites, that is five ministries, two provinces and one spending agency.

However, Dr Lewanika decided without following procedures to terminate the contracts of three key and competitively recruited IFMIS managers namely, Dr Douglas Kunda, Christopher Kasaro and Harry Pelekelo and replaced them with civil servants, against the MoU [signed with donors] and the 2003 Cabinet circular on terms and conditions of service for seconded government officers.

"This development affected and to date has affected IFMIS project implementation, since the appointment of new managers Joel Ukwimi, Innocent Mututa and Francis Mwale, delayed the commencement because they were new people and the learning process had to start all over again hence delaying the project that had reached advanced stages with a two months to ‘go live’ and this learning process is continuing and no specific date of implementation has been set," the source said.

The sources said Dr Lewanika's appointment of Ukwimi, Mututa and Mwale was not advertised and the donors were not informed, therefore the trio, who are still civil servants, were not competitively recruited.

The sources further accused Dr Lewanika of not obtaining approval from the Public Service Management Division when appointing civil servants to projects outside their job description.

"The MoU and the 2003 Cabinet circular on secondment were not followed when appointing these people, since these positions were supposed to be advertised, people competitively apply and be interviewed and a no objection be issued by the cooperating partners funding the IFMIS project and the people taking these positions were supposed to be highly qualified," said the source.

Labels: ACC, AMBASSADOR, IFMIS, JAPAN

posted by MrK @ 2:44 PM