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Probe NCC microphones procurement, Kabanda urges DEC

Probe NCC microphones procurement, Kabanda urges DEC
By Moses Kuwema
Thu 06 Oct. 2011, 14:00 CAT

THE Citizens Forum has written to the Anti Money Laundering unit of the Drug Enforcement Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the procurement of microphones by the National Constitution Conference (NCC) secretariat in April 2010.

Citizens Forum executive secretary Simon Kabanda (right) stated that the procurement of the microphones at a time when the NCC was winding up its business and the amount of money involved raised a lot of questions. He wondered why the NCC secretariat decided to spend K1.8 billion at a time when it was concluding its work.

"Were these microphones a necessity for the NCC or merely a luxury? If they were a necessity, why were they not procured in 2007 when the NCC began its sittings? Why did these microphones not come in their original boxes? Were they new microphones or they were second hand whose prices had been inflated to the prices of new ones?" Kabanda wrote.

He stated that the NCC chairperson, Chifumu Banda, observed that the old public address system that was being used by NCC worked much better than the newly-acquired one and wondered if it made sense to discard something good and efficient and replace it with an ineffective and problematic one.

"The supplier did not provide the right card to install in a computer for programming the public address system and this led to the failure to use the computer which came with the microphones. Why did the supplier not provide the right card to install in the computer?" he asked.

Kabanda stated that while only four loud speakers were mounted in the conference hall, up to 16 speakers may have been procured and wondered why the NCC procured more speakers and used only four.

"Where did the rest go to? All the above questions raised suspicions that this colossal amount of money may have just been laundered. Now that the NCC is no more, we wish to know where the PA system with all the microphones and the computer are, and what they are being used for. To this effect, we are requesting that you investigate this issue to establish the facts surrounding this questionable transaction. We would appreciate if you could communicate to us the findings of your investigations and make them public as this is an issue of national interest," stated Kabanda.

Labels: CITIZENS FORUM, CORRUPTION, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS, SIMON KABANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:33 PM