Maravi

Rupiah was under pressure to re-appoint Dora, says Shakas

Rupiah was under pressure to re-appoint Dora, says Shakas
Written by Patson Chilemba
Thursday, June 25, 2009 3:29:49 PM

JONAS Shakafuswa has charged that President Rupiah Banda has re-appointed Dora Siliya because he is facing pressure from some Eastern Province chiefs to appoint people who hail from that region.

Commenting on the re-appointment of Siliya to serve as education minister, Shakafuswa said President Banda told chiefs who went to intervene on his [Shakafuswa's] behalf following his dismissal that he was resisting pressure from Eastern Province chiefs to appoint people who hailed from that region and remove those late president Levy Mwanawasa appointed.

He said the chiefs who went to see President Banda over his dismissal included chief Mukuni, senior chief Chipepo of Central Province and chief Chipepo from Southern Province.

"He told them 'I'm resisting pressure from some people in my province who asked me to appoint people from my Province [Eastern Province] and remove people who Levy appointed'," Shakafuswa said. "President Banda has appointed Siliya because he is facing pressure from Eastern Province chiefs to appoint people from that area because chiefs told me that from the meeting they had with him over my dismissal."

Shakafuswa said he sympathised with President Banda because he found himself in a delicate situation.

And Shakafuswa said President Banda should open himself up to competition so that people could challenge him at the convention.

He said there were a lot of people who endorsed President Banda but were having dark corner meetings so that they could tell people that the President was a dictator.

Shakafuswa urged the President to be careful with some of the people who were endorsing him

He said there was no malice in MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba's call for an audit into president Mwanawasa's administration.

Shakafuswa said the investigations in the Ministry of Health should be extended to all the government ministries.

He said sometimes, reasons advanced for single-sourcing were not tenable.

"Say if services are worth US $1 million, and me as a minister I connive with officials and make the services to be worth US $5 million. Which means US$ 4 million will go into people's pockets," Shakafuswa said.

He wondered how some bidders received privileged information while others did not.

"Let us check if what is happening at the Ministry of Health is happening in other ministries. Let's do an audit of all the companies supplying government," said Shakafuswa.

"When I became deputy minister in the Ministry of Finance, I said we had lost K100 billion meant for allowances for home affairs, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, and some people took me on."

Shakafuswa said it would be important to find out where taxpayers money was taken.

Labels: DORA SILIYA, JONAS SHAKAFUSWA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:30 PM