Police warn, caution Dora

Police warn, caution Dora
By Mwala Kalaluka and Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tue 10 Jan. 2012, 13:58 CAT

DORA Siliya yesterday remained mute when a combined team probing the plunder of national resources warned and cautioned her over a radar system installation tender she involved herself in for two international airports. And sources say the law enforcement agencies' next strategy is to formally arrest Siliya by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, Enoch Kavindele says it was folly for Siliya and her cronies to think that the long arm of the law would not catch them one day for corruptly giving away Zamtel.

Zambia Police spokesperson, Elizabeth Kanjela confirmed yesterday that Siliya, a former communications and education minister, was warned and cautioned over the award of a tender to supply, deliver, install and commission a radar system at Kenneth Kaunda formerly Lusaka International and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula formerly Livingstone international airports.

Siliya, the Petauke Central MMD parliamentarian who was poised to appear before the investigative team last Thursday but failed to show up on account that she was unwell and admitted to the lavish Fairview Medical Centre in Lusaka, arrived at the former Task Force on Corruption offices in Woodlands shortly before 08:30 hours.

Siliya was chauffeured and accompanied by Eric Silwamba and Company lawyer, Lubinda Linyama. She emerged from the offices 15 minutes to 10:00 hours but she had a tough time when she attempted to evade journalists and photojournalists pursuing her.

When finally asked to comment on the interrogation, Siliya, dressed in a blue African dress complimented with dark sun glasses remained silent and immediately sat in the backseat of Linyama's car which ultimately took her to her residence on Lusaka's Independence Avenue.

Sources within the investigative team told The Post that Siliya also opted to remain mute when questions were put to her concerning the contract for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of the Zambia Air Traffic Management Surveillance Radar System ZATM-RADAR at the two international airports.

"She is refusing to talk," the source said. "She is a bit elusive but she will be arrested soon by the end of the week. We are just strategising…it's the radar issues on which she was being questioned."

Kanjela told journalists outside the former Task Force on Corruption offices that Siliya had been warned and cautioned over the award of the ZATM-RADAR tender.

Kanjela said Siliya was summoned by the combined team of investigative officers from the Zambia Police, Drug Enforcement Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and Office of the President, in relation to the award of the ZATM-RADAR tender.

"This happened between 2008 July and 2010 July," Kanjela said. "She has been warned and cautioned, investigations have continued."

Kanjela said Siliya had not yet been charged but that the law enforcement agencies would subsequently confirm to the public the date she is expected to make an appearance before the courts.

Submitting to the Sebastian Zulu-chaired commission of inquiry on the contract for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of the Zambia Air Traffic Management Surveillance Radar System ZATM-RADAR at the two international airports, Zambia Public Procurement Authority director general Samuel Chibuye said recently that Siliya acted out of her jurisdiction and that her directive was irregular.

In April 2009, the Judge Dennis Chirwa tribunal found that Siliya disregarded the law when she single-sourced RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands to valuate Zamtel's assets.

When the report was submitted to then president Rupiah Banda, Siliya who had given up her ministerial portfolio at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, was immediately appointed education minister.

Siliya, while serving as communications minister, single-sourced RP Capital Partners of Cayman Island to value the assets of Zamtel before the company's 75 per cent shares were subsequently sold to LAP Green of Libya for a paltry US$257 million- about K1.3 trillion.

Former president Banda described her as 'Smart Dora' for her decisions over Zamtel.

And Kavindele said reversing the Zamtel transaction was a litmus test for the PF government's commitment to fighting corruption.

Kavindele, an ardent critic of the US$257 million sale of the former state-owned total telecommunications provider, said there was overwhelming evidence of grand corruption in the manner the Zamtel sale was executed.

"Let me commend the PF Cabinent for this brave and bold decision to reclaim the national asset on behalf of the Zambian people," Kavindele said.

"The findings of the Tribunal are in public domain. The findings of the Sebastian Zulu commission of inquiry are in public domain, and they point to the corruption that surrounded the transaction. Like I said then when they were busy celebrating and enjoying their kickbacks with champagne and caviar and cigars, their merry-making expeditions have been cut short. It's time for them to pay back. It was naïve for them to have thought that the long arm of the law was going to spare them for the transaction, which even the man on the street knew was laced with corruption. There was too much greed in the transaction, and now the chickens are coming home to roost."

Kavindele said not reversing the Zamtel sale was going to amount to abetting corruption in the transaction that robbed the Zambian people of the national asset.

"The Zamtel sale was the most dubious and scandalous privatisation ever seen in this country," Kavindele said.

"The sale of Zamtel is a scandal from inception to end."

He said it was going to be strange for the PF government to honour the transaction which also flouted the country's competition and fair trading laws.

"This transaction lacked transparency from the word go and this is what the tribunal stated. But everyone who advised was considered an enemy of those who were to make a killing. The people who robbed the Zambian people of their asset were the ones considered to be ‘clever'," said Kavindele.

"And it was strange that a Statutory Instrument was issued prohibiting the entry of another mobile phone provider, certainly this has to be reversed. There was no way you could sell Zamtel for US $257 million when a country like

Kazakhstan with almost similar demography like Zambia sold its GSM company for $1.52 billion."

Meanwhile, a Kitwe clergyman said Siliya and others from Rupiah Banda's regime are now paying for behaving like Hollywood superstars when they were in power.

Kitwe Anglican priest Fr Richard Luonde said Siliya should just own up.

"The problem that we had from the time president Rupiah Banda took office in 2008 is leaders who were supposed to be servants...They wouldn't want to listen to anybody, every critical voice was insulted," Fr Luonde said.

"Leadership in Zambia under Rupiah Banda became a leadership of superstars where they thought they had risen to that status out of their own will."

Fr Luonde said had the MMD leaders listened and not despised every critical voice when they were in power, they would not be facing the dire consequences today.

"Had they listened they would have begun to correct themselves," he said.

"Today we are being vindicated because their superstardom came to a close when we went out to vote. When you are a servant you are supposed to go and institute the duties of a servant. To them they were Hollywood superstars who did what pleased them."

Fr Luonde said instead of playing superstar, Siliya should be honest and avail herself without hesitation before the probe team.

"She will be pronounced more guilty if she ignores the wings who are seeking her to be before their presence," said Fr Luonde. "Let her go there and appear before the investigative wings. The superstardom must come an end."

And former MMD councillor for Nyika Ward in Petauke Central, Ousman Moosa, said in an interview on Friday that Siliya should realise that people were anxious to know how she would defend herself against the corruption allegations.

Moosa testified in the Dennis Chirwa Tribunal that was probing Siliya's overtures in the RP Capital Zamtel valuation deal and a claim for repayment of funds used in drilling boreholes in her constituency.

"These investigations are merely centred on RP Capital not necessarily the issue of pumps, but nevertheless, we would wish to see the law take its course. If the lady is innocent, let it be proved," said Moosa.