Maravi

Kunda is behind justice Mumba’s harassment

Kunda is behind justice Mumba’s harassment
By George Chellah
Fri 28 Jan. 2011, 04:02 CAT

VICE-PRESIDENT George Kunda is behind the scheme to hound out justice Florence Mumba as Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

And ECZ has dodged the Auditor General's office from conducting financial audits for the past two years. Well-placed government sources yesterday disclosed that Vice-President Kunda was the force behind the ECZ saga.

"Vice-President Kunda was fed with lies over the issues at ECZ. He was told that justice Mumba, The Post and Michael Sata were in league to ensure that President Banda is out of office. And the evidence they used to back their lies was past copies of editorial comments, which The Post ran on ECZ where the newspaper praised the commission on certain positive things it was doing," the source said.

"Clearly, this whole scheme is anchored on insinuations. And some of us know that when it comes to The Post the Vice-President is unreasonable, he doesn't even care to question what he is being told. It's the same lies that were passed on to the President, hence the unfolding events at ECZ."

The sources revealed that when misconduct was detected at ECZ, Vice-President Kunda was informed about the intention to discipline Dan Kalale dismissed ECZ director on a number of offences leveled against him.

"Actually, the issue of the KPMG audit was not even part of the charges Kalale faced. One wonders why Kalale at his press briefing decided to talk about the audit and not the issues behind his dismissal. What is even more shocking is that Vice-President Kunda asked the ECZ to pardon Kalale," another source said. "In fact, he even requested them to give Kalale another three-year contract. This seems to have shocked the ECZ because Kalale whose contract was supposed to come to an end this February had not even indicated his intentions to renew it. So why should the Vice-President ask on his behalf? What's his interest?"

The sources said Vice-President Kunda's panic over Kalale's departure was strange.

"What is it that he does to warrant this forcefulness just to ensure that he remains at ECZ? As a matter of fact, Kalale is on record to have requested for a final three-year contract from justice Mumba's predecessor judge Ireen Mambilima," the source said.

"Kalale indicated that he wanted to do something else because he was tired of conducting elections. So why is the Vice-President personally pushing for the extension of his contract?"

The sources revealed that despite Vice-President Kunda attempts, justice Mumba insisted on going ahead with administrative measures because Kalale was their employee.

"The Commission felt that they had a duty to bring sanity at the institution and that they could not sit and watch taxpayers’ money being abused or misapplied. What is even more surprising is how President Banda and Vice-President Kunda could orchestrate such a move when they were both informed at every stage regarding the disciplinary issues surrounding Kalale and his subsequent dismissal from the commission," the source said. "It’s actually hypocrisy of the highest order for Vice-President Kunda to receive a petition from disgruntled ECZ junior officers and promise to give the nation an answer on the matter when he was fully aware of the happenings at ECZ. In fact, during Kalale's disciplinary hearing, Vice-President Kunda was represented by a senior officer from the Ministry of Justice, who was equally part of the decision to dismiss Kalale summarily. The Labour Commissioner was also represented at the highest level. So the decision to dismiss Kalale cannot be said to be a personal act by justice Mumba."

The sources challenged Vice-President Kunda and Kalale to disclose the details of the disciplinary hearing that led to his dismissal.

"It must be stated that the decision to dismiss Kalale had nothing to do with the audit as he claimed. Let Kalale tell the public the reason why he was dismissed. We know that Kalale has tried to frustrate every ECZ chairperson so that he makes himself look very valuable to the institution," the source said.

"That is why he has been arguing that commissioners do nothing but commissioners at ECZ are there to provide checks and balances. The truth is Kalale wants to run ECZ like his personal business. He doesn't want any control whatsoever. Kalale has overstayed at ECZ," the source said. “In fact, ECZ is all he knows throughout his working life. He is actually holding ECZ hostage."

The sources disclosed that ECZ has dodged the Auditor General's office from conducting financial audits for the past two years.

"For the year 2009 and 2010 the ECZ has not been audited. For the year 2009, Kalale wrote to the Auditor General asking for 'forgiveness' so that ECZ could not be audited for that year claiming that they were busy with the voter registration exercise. So for the year 2009, ECZ was not audited. And recently the Auditor General's office wrote to ECZ informing them that they intend to start the audit next month February for the year 2010. But again the acting director, Priscilla Isaacs has written to the Auditor General's office asking for a postponement of the exercise," the source said.

"This means that for two years, that is the year 2009 and the year 2010, ECZ has not been audited and yet they expect the government to continue pouring in taxpayers' money, which they can't account for. The fact that ECZ has evaded auditing for two years is enough to raise suspicions. In fact, the Auditor General's office is concerned that it is having difficulties to conduct an audit in ECZ.”

Labels: DAN KALALE, ECZ, FLORENCE MUMBA, GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 6:08 PM