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(LUSAKATIMES) MMD under Rupiah Banda externalised K50bn — Mahtani

MMD under Rupiah Banda externalised K50bn — Mahtani?
TIME PUBLISHED - Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 9:15 am

FINANCE Bank Zambia (FBZ) Limited chairperson, Rajan Mahtani, has alleged that the former regime under president Rupiah Banda, externalised over K50 billion to the United Kingdom and South Africa at the time the bank was under seizure. Mr Mahtani claimed that a total of K52 billion was externalised through the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) to named UK and South African-based companies.

He made the allegations at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday, saying the previous regime separately externalised K17 billion to a London-based company and US$7 million (about K35 billion) to South Africa.

Mr Mahtani alleged that the K17 billion was transmitted to a company in London that was contracted to audit the bank shortly after it was repossessed while a named forensics company from South Africa was specifically contracted to investigate Dr Mahtani and was paid an equivalent of K35 billion ($7 million).

The FBZ chairperson said steps had been taken to ensure that the bank recovered the money because the fees were unjustifiably too high.?

Dr Mathani displays stitches from his open heart operation in South Africa recently. This was during a press briefing in Lusaka.

Mr Mahtani said what was even more worrying was that the audit was undertaken after the bank obtained a court order to restrain the company from going ahead.?

Dr Mahtani also said the decision by the previous government to repossess and sell the bank was ill-conceived and was done to punish him because of the long-standing differences the bank had with a former government official before he joined the government.?

He alleged that the official borrowed a substantial amount of money from the bank to purchase a house and never paid back until the board decided to grab a house situated in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area.?

On the audit, Dr Mahtani said there had been no firm which had ever charged K17 billion for such services and wondered why the BoZ did not engage a local international audit firm.

He said as board chairperson, he was not involved in the whole transaction about the Kabulonga house and there was nothing legally wrong with the decision by the FBZ.

Dr Mahtani claimed that the sale of the bank to First National Bank at K27 billion was purely a political decision and that within the few months it operated under its original shareholders, the bank had made K60 billion profit.?

According to Dr Mahtani, FBZ made minor mistakes because the officials were human beings but such did not warrant the closure of a viable business.?

He said FBZ shareholders, Credit Suisse have resolved to fund the 500 million Euro bonds the Government intended to float and hoped to act as an agent to resell the bonds as a way of showing appreciation to the Zambian Government which had reversed the transaction.?

Dr Mahtani also said FBZ planned to commence the process of listing on the Lusaka, London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and that 40 per cent shares would be off-loaded by 2014.

He said he faced hardships to seek medical treatment when he was operated on at Milpark Clinic in South Africa while officials from the Drug-Enforcement Commission (DEC) followed him without good reasons.

Dr Mahtani said the bank was expected to pay K20 billion in taxes by the end of the year while the number of workers would rise to around 1,000 before the end of next year.?

Meanwhile, FBZ has, with immediate effect, increased salaries for its 734 workers by K2 million across the board with the lowest paid getting at least K4.5 million per month.

[Times of Zambia]

Labels: CORRUPTION, FINANCE BANK, MMD, RAJAN MAHTANI

posted by MrK @ 8:57 AM