I’m clean – Mpombo

I’m clean – Mpombo
Written by George Chellah and Patson Chilemba
Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:42:55 PM

FORMER defence minister George Mpombo yesterday explained that the alleged mobile phone roaming bill of about K100 million was accrued over a period of approximately two and half years by the Ministry of Defence. And Mpombo said any intentions to scandalise or vandalise the late president Levy Mwanawasa's legacy will not go unchallenged.

In an interview, Mpombo said the plans to incriminate him would not yield anything because he was clean. He advised the government not to engage in political persecution.

"These are futile mischievous attempts to drag my name into the mud. When I was appointed minister of defence, Ambassador Chitafu was permanent secretary. He set up a mobile telephone roaming facility so that when I am in China, Russia or outside the country, I can get in touch with my office as minister of defence. When these arrangements were being made, Mr Kamanga, the current director procurement at the Ministry of Defence was acting director of human resource development at that time," Mpombo explained. "They went ahead and organised this facility with Celtel that time. I didn't go there myself, I didn't apply for it and I didn't speak to anybody. It wasn't done by me, it was done by the Ministry of Defence. But about three weeks ago, I noticed that there was an invoice that came from Zain to the Ministry of Defence. It was brought to my attention that since the period the facility was entered into, it was not being serviced. The ministry wasn't paying despite invoices being sent from Zain."

Mpombo explained that when the matter was brought to his attention, he found it strange and he summoned the permanent secretary Dr Kwendakwema and the director human resource.

"During our discussion I expressed my total displeasure why the ministry was not paying for the facility they had contracted. I asked Dr Kwendakwema and I told him that 'if you are not comfortable with me using this facility, can you cancel it immediately' and he promised that he will get back to me," Mpombo said.

"About a week later I got an internal memo from the permanent secretary saying since I was the one using this facility personally, I should pay the bill from my own pocket towards this facility. I received this news with shock and I have written to the Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja to explain that this facility was contracted by the Ministry of Defence.

"I told him that if that position by the permanent secretary was confirmed by government, I will then vigorously pursue this matter with my lawyers. I can't pay for services I was doing on behalf of the government. I find it to be victimisation. There is no minister of defence in the world who doesn't use this facility. This is the thing they are saying amounts to corruption. It was in November or December 2006 thereabout, that's when it was introduced and for two and half years they have not been servicing it and it's K90 million to K100 million, about that much."

On unretired imprest, Mpombo said no one had brought the issue to his attention.

"I don't know what they are talking about and the figures involved. It's desperation," he said.

Mpombo insisted that he was clean and that he was ready to demonstrate that if the government wanted him to do so.

He said he must not be provoked or pushed against the wall because he held a very sensitive portfolio in the country, warning that when he starts disclosing issues, he must not be blamed.

He warned local government minister Benny Tetamashimba and other government ministers peddling the accusations not to push him too far.

"I took the oath of allegiance and secrets, so I should not be provoked. I held a very sensitive ministry and my role is that I remain responsible to the oath that I took," Mpombo said.

"But if people push me against the wall and I start talking about issues, people should not blame me. Let them not even embark on political persecution. My stance over that matter has been to keep quiet but now they are bordering on character assassination..."

Mpombo said considering the portfolio he held in the country, he wanted to be responsible by remaining quiet after resigning.

"I just left without saying anything, I gave my own personal reasons. But why should they put pressure on me like this. The President didn't say anything bad and I wanted to respect that, but it's his advisors the Mike Mulongotis [works and supply minister and MMD chairperson for elections]," he said.

Mpombo said he was consulting his lawyers over possibilities to institute legal action against Tetamashimba so that he could prove his allegations.

He said Tetamashimba was trying to scandalise late president Mwanawasa's legacy.

"Tetamashimba's intentions to scandalise or vandalise president Levy Mwanawasa's legacy will not go unchallenged. Read the article on ABSA in the Times of Zambia, read through it and see. Tetamashimba's intentions will not go unchallenged. Unfortunately, this is the nature of African politics," he said.

Mpombo, who explained how Tetamashimba was co-opted in the ruling party, said Tetamshimba had no leadership attributes.

"It was felt that we needed a lumpen, that's why we had Tetamashimba not as minister but at deputy minister level. His speciality has been Kamikaze political operations. That's his skill," he said.

Mpombo said he does not take lands deputy minister Michael Mabenga seriously.

"I saved Mabenga from Tetamashimba and Mulongoti over the issue of the presidency. They were so annoyed that they were pointing fingers and calling him names that he was shuffling his feet over the holding of a NEC meeting at which the President should take over as party president," Mpombo said. "I had to intervene with a lot of other people. We felt bad in the manner he was being treated by these people. So Mabenga is...I don't take him seriously. They are destroying the party by insulting people because I have received a number of calls during this period."

And PF president Michael Sata has intimated that PF would welcome Mpombo because it was possible for him to resign from the MMD at the rate things were going.

Sata said PF already had 18 parliamentary seats on the Copperbelt, which could rise to 19 if Mpombo resigned from MMD.

"If he comes we shall consider him on merit. We are not desperate of seats on the Copperbelt. We already have 18, and if George Mpombo wants to bring it to 19, we shall consider it on merit," Sata said. "If I want to invite Mpombo, I will just invite. If he resigns [from MMD], Kafulafuta will be up for grabs and MMD will not get it. At the rate George Mpombo is going, anything is possible."

Sata also said the fear by some people that UPND president Hakainde Hichilema would take advantage of his popularity in urban areas was mere speculation.

He said PF and UPND would not take advantage of the other party's strongholds on account of the pact they had entered into.

"We have not seen Hakainde Hichilema taking advantage of the pact to try and influence PF strongholds and vice-versa. So those are mere speculation. When they come to be proved that they are real, we shall deal with them and it won't be late. For example, we have two seats in Lusaka [Chawama and Matero], we have not seen UPND taking advantage," Sata said. "We have seven seats in Luapula, so there is no reason why we should not trust them. If the speculations of the people were correct, we would have seen advances in Chawama and Matero and in the nine seats on the Copperbelt. I am talking of vulnerable seats. That is where we are supposed to see them take advantage but they have not."

Sata alleged that MMD had sent 600 thugs from the Copperbelt and Lusaka to Chitambo to beat up people who were not supporting the party.

He said President Banda and MMD did not promise people with beatings if they refused to support the party but made false promises of reducing fertiliser prices last year.

"They did not promise Chinese to occupy Serenje. Why should we import Chinese to come and occupy the whole Serenje District?" asked Sata.

PF parliamentary candidate for Chitambo Chanda Mutale said the party had reported the violence by MMD to the police but to no avail.

"We brought up the matter in the meeting we had with ECZ [Electoral Commission of Zambia] in Serenje but they said the police handling that matter may not be that big, so 'you must report it to senior officials and they said you put it in writing'," said Mutale, as Sata responded: "ECZ and police are the same. They are all compromised. They have made up their minds where they have gone. It is a very, very big problem."