Maravi

Adhere to tender laws, Kavindele urges Rupiah’s sons

Adhere to tender laws, Kavindele urges Rupiah’s sons
By George Chellah
Thu 05 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

FORMER Republican vice-president Enoch Kavindele yesterday urged President Rupiah Banda's sons to adhere to tender laws as failure to do that will haunt them in future.

Reacting to President Banda's appeal for him to leave his children alone, Kavindele said he meant well when he advised the President to keep away his children from business deals.

“Rupiah Banda is a brother and bossom friend of mine dating back to the 70s and I recall with fond memories some of the things we did in our youth such as when I invited him and my other friend Panji Kaunda, the son of the former president and flew in my aircraft to Nairobi for a weekend,” Kavindele said. “We spent five days in Nairobi.

On another occasion, I invited him on my executive jet together with VJ and flew to South Africa for four days and we even went to a party in Soweto. That is just to show you that when I advise him, there is no ill-will on my part. I very much want him to succeed as President of Zambia. But for as long as his children are involved in public procurement, people will continue to talk about it because that's what public office is all about.”

Kavindele said he could not stop talking about President Banda's children when they were involved in public procurement.

“All we are saying is that we want them to go through a proper process so that even when their father has long left State House they can walk with their heads tall,” Kavindele said.

“I have known Rupiah's children since they were toddlers and it gives me immense pleasure to see them succeeding. But the nature of public procurement is that they just have to do things correctly otherwise these things will come and haunt them in future.”

Kavindele said President Banda did not have the right to disregard existing laws.

“The President should understand that though he has the power to do pretty much as he pleases, he doesn't necessarily have the right to disregard existing laws. The public procurement of everything to government requires the adherence of tender procedures,” Kavindele said.

“Anything outside the tender procedure is a breach of the law and we are advising him to follow the law because in future when he is no longer in State House somebody may want to know why there was a procurement without tender laws being adhered to.”

On his son's alleged involvement in the TST oil procurement problems, Kavindele explained that his son Enoch Jr was just a mere employee of TST based in South Africa, which had been awarded the contract to supply petroleum to Zambia long before he joined them.

“And I was in no way involved in awarding the tender to TST. In fact, there are people today who are still in government who will testify to my objection to government giving this tender to TST when there were existing suppliers who in my opinion were doing a good job. But because the Zambian National Oil Company (ZNOC) had been put into receivership, it was found necessary to award this contract to TST,” Kavindele said.

“I was not there myself when this meeting was held at State House. And the contract to award a tender to TST was approved by the Attorney General who at that time was George Kunda, now the current Republican Vice-President.”

On the North-Western railway project, Kavindele said he was not happy with the treatment that President Banda's government had accorded him.

“It has taken me many years to conceive the idea of the railway line in North-Western Province. Just when I have started the construction, they withdraw the licence. Equally, I was given the authority to develop the Kafue Lower Hydro project. Now I hear that it's being given to another group.

I am particularly upset that the President himself could direct the Supreme Court to rule against me over Vodacom,” Kavindele said. “This has nothing to do with my objection to his children's involvement in several procurement.”

In a statement released by special assistant to the President for press and public relations Dickson Jere, President Banda appealed to politicians, especially Kavindele to leave his family out of politics of hatred and mudslinging.

Labels: ENOCH KAVINDELE, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:44 AM