Maravi

NEC officials accuse Rupiah of mishandling adoptions

NEC officials accuse Rupiah of mishandling adoptions
By George Chellah
Wed 27 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

MMD NEC officials have accused Pres-ident Rupiah Banda and the ad hoc committee of mishandling the recent adoption process by imposing candidates in some constituencies.

And President Banda is today expected to meet all the MMD adopted parliamentary candidates at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC). Well-placed sources within the MMD National Executive Committee yesterday revealed that the recent adoption process had created divisions within the ruling party.

“Instead of being methodical with the entire adoption process the President chose to take short cuts in an effort to appease certain individuals,” the source said. “The President and the ad hoc committee that was appointed have mishandled the adoption process because they have basically imposed candidates on the people in most constituencies.”

The source disclosed that President Banda and the ad hoc committee deliberately ignored the recommendations of some NEC officials that toured the country.

“The party tasked several of us, NEC members to go round the country and get a feel of the grassroots demands in so far as the adoption of candidates is concerned. We went round the country and came back with recommendations,” the source said. “The purpose of our tour was to ensure that we end up with a refined list of adopted candidates. We also went in order to ensure that there is fairness and transparency in the adoption process because it’s a fact that there was a lot of corruption involved.

“Therefore, we didn’t want popular candidates to be left out on account of failing to raise enough money to bribe the party structures like certain ministers and deputy ministers were doing. We found stories where certain leaders in some provinces were charging K30 million for a person to be short-listed for adoption by the NEC.”

The source said the party acknowledged that there was corruption in the adoption process hence the decision to send NEC officials countrywide.

“This was done in order for us to have the right and deserving people as candidates in constituencies countrywide. We returned from this fact-finding mission and submitted our reports to the party. But it’s now clear going by the President and the ad hoc committee’s actions that some of those reports were just shelved or thrown away,” the source said. “We say so because there is no way certain individuals that are part of the list of adopted candidates could have been there if the President and the ad hoc committee took into account the submissions of some NEC officials that toured those specific constituencies.”

The source disclosed that the reports that were brought by certain NEC officials who toured the provinces were at variance with the recommendations of the Provincial Executive Committees (PEC).
“Clearly, this confirms that the adoption process was faulty because if it wasn’t, one wouldn’t expect any differences. For instance, the reports that came from Eastern, Southern, Western and certain parts of Central province were to a larger extent at variance with the recommendations of the provincial executives in those regions,” the source said. “What we mean is that there was a problem because these reports didn’t tally completely with what the province recommended. In certain instances we ended up with situations where the provincial executives recommended very weak candidates.”

The source questioned the logic behind sending teams of ministers countrywide if the outcome of the process was already known.

“The President wasted our time and national resources because we went round the country using taxpayers’ money to perform party functions. If he knew that he already had a list he shouldn’t have wasted our time and people’s money like he has done,” the source said. “State resources were wasted because most of those people who went on this mission were ministers. And you know what is involved when a ministers travels out. Fuel, accommodation and other expenses are incurred by the state. So that was just people’s money they were wasting.”

The source revealed that labour minister Austin Liato was part of the team that went to Eastern Province.

“Liato was accompanied by Anne Chungu and Evans Chibanda. For Luapula Province we had finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, tourism minister Catherine Namugala and mines minister Maxwell Mwale,” the source said. “For Southern Province we had livestock and fisheries minister Bradford Machila, sports minister Kenneth Chipungu and agriculture minister Dr Brian Chituwo.

“And the Western Province team comprised information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha, defence minister Dr Kalombo Mwansa and Moses Muteteka. So you can imagine the expenditure because there are still other ministers I haven’t mentioned here who also went in other provinces.”

The source said the traditional leadership had not endorsed certain adoptions.

“We just have to pour in a lot of resources in these constituencies if we have to win most of them,” said the source.

Labels: MMD, MULUNGUSHI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER, NEC, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:50 PM