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Publish list of all politicians that owe FRA, demands GBM

Publish list of all politicians that owe FRA, demands GBM
By Chibaula Silwamba
Thu 15 Apr. 2010, 04:50 CAT

GEOFFREY Bwalya Mwamba yesterday demanded that President Rupiah Banda and agriculture minister Peter Daka instruct the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to publish a list of all politicians that owe the firm money and the interest rate at which they are servicing the debt.

Explaining his settling of the K2 billion he owed FRA as accrued interest for the debt he had with the government firm, Mwamba, proprietor of GBM Milling and GBM Trucking Limited, complained that he was charged a 70 per cent interest on the K390 million debt he had with FRA.

“As I said on Sunday during my press briefing, I definitely instructed my junior accountant on Monday to transfer the money and the amount that was transferred to Malambo and Company was K2,013,000,000 which I want to clarify and people to understand which is the interest that has been slapped on the K390 million which was a principal amount paid four years ago.

So what I am paying now is merely interest; it’s not principal,” Mwamba said.

“Honourable Daka was portraying to the public that this money was the principal which I was owing. No, it wasn’t. This K2 billion has come about as interest, which was slapped on the K390 million at the rate of 70 per cent, which I find to be extremely abnormal in this country. Probably 10 or 15 years ago, yes, 70 per cent was normal because even the margins were high. If you look at the price of mealie-meal that we charge, we only get between 10 to 15 per cent profit. Now, how could I be slapped with a 70 per cent interest?”

Mwamba, a PF parliamentarian for Kasama Central, accused the government of persecuting him.

“Though they are saying it’s not political, I still insist that it’s highly political. Can they prove to us that those that have been owing FRA are also paying at 70 per cent? In the same vein, I would like to urge the MMD government, not only Peter Daka, now Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda the President of this country to instruct FRA to publish a list of all the politicians that owe FRA and what their interest rate are which they are paying,” Mwamba said.

“What they want is to scare people like me and other Zambians that are in the opposition parties so that we don’t support the opposition parties; the whole idea why they have done this is that they wanted me to get scared so that I go back to MMD which I will say is practically impossible and not even in my wildest dreams would I think of ever going back to MMD because it’s a finished party.”

He said he joined the PF-UPND pact because the two parties were people-driven.

“The majority of Zambians throughout the country are for PF-UPND pact and that is where the future of Zambia lies. If Zambians want to be liberated they should vote for the PF-UPND pact because the MMD government has no vision; they have no plan,” said Mwamba.

“Look at them now, they don’t even talk about those that are completing schools today, they are not talking about creating jobs. What kind of government is that? I think they have overstayed and the people of Zambia should toss them out of power next year which I am 100 per cent sure will happen.”

The FRA seized property belonging to GBM Trucking Limited in Lusaka to recover more than K2 billion the company owed to the agency.

The seizure of the building came in the wake of the company’s failure to settle about K522 million with interest, which the company borrowed from the government’s crop marketing agency.

In 1998, GBM Trucking deposited title deeds for the building as collateral for a K522 million loan from the FRA.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FRA, GBM, MMD

posted by MrK @ 3:13 PM