Former first lady Thandiwe Banda faces arrest
February 16, 2013 | Filed underFeatured | Posted by mitia
By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE -
THE Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has submitted in the Lusaka High Court that former First Lady Thandiwe Banda is ‘highly’ likely to face criminal charges and be prosecuted in connection with the seized apartments belonging to Mpundu Trust Limited.
The ACC told High Court Judge Dominic Sichinga that there was likelihood that investigations against Mpundu Trust would yield a criminal case for prosecution and as such, the court should dismiss her application to cancel the restrictions on the property placed by the ACC.
The ACC said the explanation given by Ms Banda, the director of Mpundu Trust Limited after she was interviewed did not or does not successfully exculpate the Trust from the allegations.
This is in a matter in which Ms Banda of Villa Number Three, Plot 2758 off Leopards Hill Road, New Kasama wants the Lusaka High Court to order with costs, the reversal of the restriction notice to lease or dispose of the property issued by the ACC on her property.
She wants in the alternative, the Court to annul the restriction notice and allow her to lease out the property.
But according to the affidavit in opposition of originating summons filed by ACC’s Chola Kasongo, the restriction could not be cancelled because the apartments are likely to be used in the courts of law as evidence.
Mr Kasongo said the investigations were still ongoing and the commission was still investigating Mpundu Trust in relation to amounts of money that came into the Trust’s account as well as the dealings of Mpundu Trust with third parties.
He said ACC was not obliged to update Ms Banda on how far the investigations have gone but the fact that she was on December 3, 2012 interviewed was an indication that investigations were active.
Mr Kasongo said ACC commenced investigations into alleged corrupt activities involving Mpundu Trust sometime last year.
He said a restriction notice was entered against Mpundu Trust on January 4, 2012 in accordance with the ACC Act and the same was served in October 2012.
“That on February 3, 2012 Thandiwe Banda as a director of Mpundu Trust was interviewed in connection with the investigations and the explanation given therein did not and does not successfully exculpate the applicant from the allegations to warrant the cancelation of the restriction notice,” Mr Kasongo said.
He said contrary to Ms Banda’s claims, investigations had reached an advanced stage.
Mr Justice Sichinga adjourned the matter to February 26, 2013.
Labels: ACC, DOMINIC SICHINGA, IMMUNITY, THANDIWE BANDA
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Feasibility studies on Tazara,Mpulungu link begin
By Gift Chanda
Thu 13 Oct. 2011, 12:50 CAT
FEASIBILITY studies into the construction of a railway linking TAZARA railway line to Mpulungu port in Northern Province have commenced, says transport permanent secretary Dominic Sichinga.
Sichinga said experts from China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), a firm contracted to study the possibility of building a railway line in Northern Province, were currently on the ground accessing the terrain.
The government early this year signed three agreements with CCECC with one meant to facilitate the extension of Chipata-Mchinji railway line to Mpika via Petauke to be linked to TAZARA.
The other MoU was for a railway line covering a stretch of 1000 kilometres from Solwezi to Kasempa, Kaoma to Katima Mulilo up to Walvis Bay, Namibia.
The third agreement was for a railway line to cover Nseluka near Kasama in Northern Province link to Mpulungu port.
"By March we should have a report on whether to proceed with these developments," Sichinga said in an interview.
"We believe these are projects that will enhance the economic potential of our country."
He said the railway line in Northern Province once fully developed would open up the Mpulungu Port to greater trade volumes were low.
"Mpulungu is a gateway to the Great Lakes region...the port is the only navigable port we have in Zambia and it is shared by four other countries," he said.
"We believe this project will have benefits for Zambia and we would like them to be feasible."
Labels: DOMINIC SICHINGA, MPULUNGU, RAIL, TAZARA
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Govt terminates TAZARA MD’s contract
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 12 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT
THE Zambian government has terminated the contract of Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) acting managing director Henry Chipewo. According to well-placed sources in the Ministry of Communications and Transport, Chipewo’s contract was terminated on January 4, 2010.
The sources said Ministry of Communications and Transport permanent secretary Dominic Sichinga wrote to Chipewo informing him that TAZARA board of directors meeting held at the firm’s head office in Dar-es-Salaam on December 14, 2009 resolved to terminate his contract.
“Mr Sichinga, in his letter to Mr Chipewo, stated that ‘further to a board resolution at the last board of directors meeting held at TAZARA head office in Dar-es-Salaam on 14th December 2009, I hereby advise that the board has revoked your appointment as acting managing director with immediate effect following the conclusion of the exercise conducted by the board to review the operations of TAZARA.
I, therefore, wish to take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for your positive contributions towards the successful operations of TAZARA during the period you served as its chief executive officer’,” the source explained.
Mr Sichinga further stated that Mr Chipewo’s contributions in enhancing the operations of TAZARA were fully appreciated by the board and the governments of Tanzania and Zambia. He stated: ‘In this regard, I trust that you will make yourself available in future should government call upon your valuable services. I wish you all the best and success in your future endeavours.’
But we are surprised that instead of the board secretary of TAZARA writing to Mr Chipewo and announcing the board’s decision immediately after the meeting in Dar es Salaam, Mr Sichinga as chairman was the one who wrote the letter, which was not even countersigned by his Tanzanian counterpart. This has raised questions about the motive behind Mr Chipewo’s dismissal.”
The sources said Sichinga copied his letter to Tanzanian Ministry of Infrastructure Development permanent secretary Omar Chambo, who is the co-chairman of TAZARA board.
Labels: DOMINIC SICHINGA, HENRY CHIPEWO, TAZARA
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LAZ writes Attorney General over office of the DPP
By Patson Chilemba
Wed 09 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT
LAW Association of Zambia (LAZ) president Steven Lungu yesterday revealed that the association has
written to the Attorney General, observing that
the powers of the DPP have been usurped by the executive.
In an interview, Lungu reiterated his earlier position that it had now become more apparent that the decision not to appeal against former president Frederick Chiluba's acquittal did not emanate from the Director of Public Prosecutions DPP. Lungu said the situation had been excarcebated by statements emanating from those in the executive.
He said LAZ had written to the Attorney General because it appeared that the provisions of the Republican Constitution granted to the DPP had been usurped by the executive.
“If you remember what I said the last time I said 'it is becoming apparent that the DPP could not have made this decision'. It is seemingly appearing so that the provisions of the Constitution that gives the DPP the power to make decisions have been usurped, have been taken over by the executive.
We have communicated very, very clearly to the office of the Attorney General over this issue, expressing our views,” Lungu said.
“We have actually indicated our position to the Attorney General. What we want to do is we want to wait and see what the response of the Attorney General is before we can take our next step. That is not to say we are not doing anything about it under the Constitution because there is work that we are doing in relation to the same.”
Recently, Lungu said it had now become apparent that the decision not to appeal Chiluba's acquittal on corruption charges did not emanate from the DPP, following the statement from President Banda that he refused to appeal the former president's acquittal because lawyers at the dissolved Task Force on Corruption were selfish people who wanted to make money out of politics.
On the non-renewal of former Attorney General Mumba Malila's contract by President Banda, Lungu said Malila's contract came to an end, and any contract could be renewed or not renewed.
However, Lungu said when the Dora Siliya case came up, the President was on record as saying that he was going to reorganise the Attorney General's chambers.
He said Dominic Sichinga was the first one to be removed from the position of Solicitor General when he was appointed to serve as permanent secretary.
“We did issue a statement, at that particular time just after that statement was made by the President, that we would stand firm and defend constitutional office holders, that we believe the people that operate in these offices should act independently without any form of intimidation,” Lungu said.
“This is on record. We did say it then and we are going to say it now. We would not want to speculate that the decision not to renew the contract has got anything to do with Mr. Malila's action in that particular matter.”
Lungu insisted that people appointed to constitutional offices should be allowed to operate independently. He said Malila was a professional lawyer who performed admirably even before he was appointed Attorney General.
“We would like to commend him for the services that he rendered to the government of the Republic of Zambia,” Lungu said.
Asked if the decision not to renew Malila's contract could have been prompted by the manner he professionally handled himself over the Dora Siliya saga, Lungu responded:
“Our hope is that it has nothing to do with that. The circumstances would want to impute that, but we would want to believe strongly it has got nothing to do with the Dora Siliya but that it is just that the contract had come to an end, and the government decided not to renew it.”
Lungu also said LAZ would write to the Attorney General to seek clarification on the issues surrounding Dr Rodger Chongwe.
Labels: ATTORNEY GENERAL, CORRUPTION, DOMINIC SICHINGA, DPP, LAZ, STEPHEN LUNGU
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George Kunda
Written by Editor
It is very clear that the Ministry of Justice is being abused by George Kunda. It is not difficult for any honest person to see that George has not discharged his duties as Minister of Justice, and previously as Attorney General, with sufficient honour, integrity and fairness. George has used these offices to carry on personal agendas that have very little, if not nothing, to do with the interests of the people.
George has never hesitated to use his political position to try and manipulate the office of the Attorney General, Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions. George has put excessive pressure on these offices and the officers occupying them to do wrong things, to defend indefensible things and to justify that which can’t be justified. And in the process, George has created veritable chaos in the nation and has nearly ruined the careers of very good lawyers in public service.
When George was occupying the office of Attorney General, he tried to use that office to totally derail or cripple the fight against corruption. If things were left to George alone, these corruption convictions we are seeing in our courts of law wouldn’t be there. George tried everything possible to destroy the Task Force on Corruption and malign those who were effective in carrying out its duties.
Today George is still fighting for the destruction of the Task Force and the derailment of its work. If things were to be left to George alone, all those facing corruption charges today under the Task Force would be set free. It should not surprise anyone tomorrow to hear that George is campaigning for the pardoning of Frederick Chiluba if he is convicted, for the generals and others who have been convicted for corruption.
Those who are weak will be messed up by George. The Zambian people know very well how George tried to mess up the work of Caroline Sokoni as acting Director of Public Prosecutions. But she was an honest lady who stood her ground and refused to be part of George’s scheme to corruptly enter a nolle in favour of their friend Kashiwa Bulaya. George tried to drag in many other lawyers to defend that scheme.
Former Solicitor General Sunday Nkonde, Darlington Mwape and even the current DPP Chalwe Muchenga were nearly messed up by George over the Bulaya nolle. Bulaya is today in jail after having been convicted by the magistrates’ court and losing an appeal in the High Court. Mind you, this is in a matter which George said there was no evidence to prosecute Bulaya.
George knew very well that there was enough evidence to prosecute and convict Bulaya. But he chose to be dishonest about it, to tell a lie about it. George is not empty at law. He is actually a good lawyer. And therefore his faulty judgement over the Bulaya nolle was deliberate and conscious. It was an act of outright dishonesty on George’s part.
George has not stopped his schemes at Bulaya. If it was still left to him, the likes of Xavier Chungu and many others facing corruption charges would be walking our streets as free men.
But when people in such high offices do wrong things, they always attempt to manipulate those under them to be accomplices, to be at their service. It is very clear that there was an attempt to manipulate Solicitor General Dominic Sichinga to support their evil scheme. And when they thought they had him on their evil side, the best inside him prevailed.
It was evil for them to think Sichinga would go before that tribunal, hold the Holy Bible in his hand and swear by the Almighty God that the evidence he was going to give would be the truth and nothing but the truth and ask God to help him and then proceed to tell lies. And when that did not happen, they want to accuse Sichinga of having misled them! Misled them in what? Who was trying to mislead who? It was them who were trying to mislead Sichinga, and not Sichinga misleading them.
As for Mumba Malila, the Attorney General, it was a question of being truly honest. A clear demonstration that if you are honest, truly honest, you won’t be corrupted; if you are unassuming and have a clear understanding of the worth of people and of yourself, you won’t be corrupted.
But as we have stated before, George should realise that manipulators like him have never enjoyed the respect of anyone. They might have terrified people into submission, but those people have never had respect for them. Manipulators have never deserved anybody’s respect or been successful anywhere. George may think he is successful in life by manipulating his way into this and that.
Well, there are many ways of measuring success but the only success that is worth calling success is that which comes from honest, caring and respectful dealings with others, dealings that are fair, humane and just.
Manipulation doesn’t have substance, soon the reality of George’s deceitful ways will catch up with him. He shouldn’t think those senior lawyers in government he is dealing with are less beings to him, have no sense of dignity and pride and can be used like his personal servants. Those men and women are fellow professionals and they have pride and dignity to defend.
Soon they will refuse to be used in the manner he is trying to use them. Already, Malila and Sichinga have demonstrated that dignity, that pride and that integrity. Soon George will find that he has no one to manipulate even at the DPP chambers in the way he used to do it.
As we have stated before, we think that everything – respect, relationships and understanding – is only possible among people who are honest with themselves and with others, people who have respect for themselves and for others. George’s conduct does not inspire respect, does not inspire faith and does not inspire loyalty.
Of course, there will always be some mercenaries to hire or who will be ready to hire themselves out, but there will also always be some men and women in our country who will refuse to be accomplices to wrong things like the way Malila and Sichinga did. And before George and his friends realise it, our civil and public service will soon be dominated by many Malilas and Sichingas.
We cannot have rule of law with characters like George exerting so much influence on the government ministries and departments dealing with justice. We say this because there is nothing that resembles the rule of law in George’s merciless heart.
It is not enough for us to say that the courts should follow and apply the laws faithfully and equally to all. We must in addition demand that there should be no dispensing powers vested in the hands of people like George which would relieve a person from the duties and processes of the law.
With the behaviour of people like George, it is clear to us that it is not sufficient to say that the holders of these legal and justice public offices are in practice, due to their high standards of probity, able to separate that part of their activity which they discharge as impartial ministers of justice from that which they perform as selfish, greedy political animals. Clearly, any system which relies on such high principles is open to abuse, and is being abused by people like George.
And if we go back in history, we shall generally find that although the notion that justice should be fairly administered may well have been accepted, those who administered the justice system were not expected to be in any real sense “independent”.
Thus in medieval England, from whose common law our country has derived its only national legal system, justice was a royal prerogative, which the ruler carried out through his appointed officials. As such, not only where there no separation of powers, but those who administered of the justice system were agents of those who ruled; while in theocratic societies, such as those where Islam was state religion, the administrators of justice had to conform to the dictates of the sacred law, as expressed in the Sharia and the Sunna.
George and his friends fit in very well in these medieval practices. He wants the Solicitor General, the Attorney General and the DPP, including the police as part of our judicial process, to do as he pleases. But where will such practices take us?
George is a very big disservice to our country’s justice system and should be moved very far from it. This is a job that requires honest people and not a liar, deceitful person, manipulative element like George. Well, Rupiah Banda may think a person of the character of George may be of value to him because he can dribble his way through this and that, manipulate this and that, bend the law here and there to get him out of trouble. But everything has got a time.
A day will come for accounting. Chiluba had a number of such characters around him. They manipulated a lot of things for him, including the current Constitution. But where is Chiluba today and where are those people who manipulated all those things for him? Chiluba is on his own today, waiting for his judgment day on July 20 and also waiting for the registration of the London High Court judgment so that what he stole from the people of Zambia can be given back to the people of Zambia in the Caesar style and fashion.
It is pleasing to see that the Zambian people are starting to highly appreciate the need for honesty and integrity in public service and they are starting to support and defend public officers who live up to such standards. Their defence of Sichinga and Malila should serve as a strong warning to George and his friends and the mercenaries they use to do their dirty things that their days are numbered.
Labels: ATTORNEY GENERAL, DOMINIC SICHINGA, GEORGE KUNDA
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Any disciplinary action against Malila, Sichinga will be victimisation - former Attorney General Mut
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:09:04 PM
FORMER attorney general Bonaventure Mutale yesterday said any disciplinary action against Attorney General Mumba Malila and Solicitor General Dominic Sichinga by President Rupiah Banda will be clearly victimisation of the two.
In an interview in Lusaka, Mutale said Malila and Sichinga were professional in their guidance to Siliya, the Ministry of Communications and Transport and in their submissions to the judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal.
"I have gone through the [judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal] report, I am afraid I have not seen that finding of fact which specifically states that the Attorney General and the Solicitor General misled Ms Siliya," said Mutale, who was one of the lawyers for the petitioners in the tribunal set up to investigate Siliya's alleged contravention of the parliamentary and ministerial code of conduct.
"In my view, the opinion of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General given in their evidence and the correspondence that they produced before the tribunal was very professional and highlighted all the pertinent issues that the minister and her ministry ought to have considered before executing the [Memorandum of Understanding] MoU."
However, he said he would wait and see how President Banda would reorganise the Attorney General's chambers as he had informed the nation.
"It is unfortunate if an attempt is now being made to cover Ms Siliya's wrongdoing by penalising the Attorney General and Solicitor General. I think that is all I can say for the time being until we see what the President will do in his reorganisation of the Attorney General's chambers," Mutale said.
"But I think that let's wait and see what he is going to do to them [Malila and Sichinga] because if he does take disciplinary action against them, it will be clearly victimisation. But at this stage I think it will be premature for me to make a comment until I have seen what he will do."
He said Siliya's resignation should not put an end to this matter.
"But I think I will only be able to make a meaningful comment on this after we hear what the President has to say on the recommendations of the tribunal after he has studied it fully," Mutale said.
The judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal found that Siliya breached Article 54 sub Article 3 of the Constitution when she engaged RP Capital Partners Limited of Cayman Islands to valuate the assets of Zamtel without following the legal advice from the Attorney General.
Labels: BONAVENTURE MUTALE, DOMINIC SICHINGA, DORA SILIYA, MUMBA MALILA, PRIVATISATION
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Dora ignored Legal advice – Sichinga
Written by Maluba Jere
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 4:41:51 PM
SOLICITOR General Dominic Sichinga yesterday told the Judge Dennis Chirwa Tribunal that his legal opinion on RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands was disregarded. And Sichinga testified that he was not aware that a second Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zambian government and RP Capital Partners had been executed.
This is in a matter where former communications and transport minister William Harrington and ten civil society organisations petitioned Chief Justice Ernest Sakala to set up a tribunal to investigate alleged corruption and abuse of office involving communications and transport minister Dora Siliya.
Harrington and the ten civil society organisations urged justice Sakala to probe Siliya for allegedly breaching the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct in her engagement of RP Capital Partners to value Zamtel’s assets before partial privatisation and her cancellation of a tender that was awarded for the installation of radars at the Lusaka and Livingstone international airports. Siliya is also being probed over her alleged claims of K12.5 million from Petauke District Council as refund for two hand pumps for two boreholes sunk in Nyika Ward when in fact the hand pumps were procured at K5 million.
Sichinga, who was led in examination in chief by tribunal chairperson judge Chirwa, said the legal advice on the RP Capital MoU was not complied with.
"So quite clearly your opinion was not complied with, it was disregarded, wouldn't you agree?" asked one of the petitioners' lawyers Bonaventure Mutale as Sichinga responded: "I am agreeing, yes."
Mutale observed that Sichinga's legal opinion though quite detailed had been literally torn apart in the MoU executed by Siliya.
He asked Sichinga if he realised that all his recommendations had not been considered in the MoU that was signed to which Sichinga responded in the affirmative.
"Your letter of November 25, 2008 is four pages. Would you agree that all those points raised in your opinion have not been considered in P1 [MoU]?" Mutale asked.
Sichinga agreed that the points he raised in his legal opinion of November 25, 2008 had not been considered.
He told the tribunal that he saw several drafts of the same MoU but he had not seen the final draft of the signed document.
Sichinga explained that he was in consultation with Attorney General Mumba Malila over the matter and that he last dealt with RP Capital Partners in his letter of December 5, 2008.
He said Malila was compelled to write a letter nullifying the MoU after he was informed by his representative from the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) who raised concerns on the process.
"I was in agreement with the Attorney General. We have verbal consultations and he informed me that there are concerns 'that our advice has not been heeded'," Sichinga said. "And I understood that everything I have said has not been taken into consideration...and I was not around when the MoU was signed, I was out of the country."
He said he agreed with Malila's letter dated January 5, 2009, which nullified the MoU, saying his understanding was that the legal advice had not been complied with.
However, Sichinga explained that some of his concerns were addressed.
This prompted tribunal member judge Peter Chitengi to ask whether the legal advice is only rendered on some issues or all of them.
"When you rendered the advice, did you want it on some of the issues or is it everything that has to be followed?" judge Chitengi asked.
Sichinga said the legal advice was on everything.
He said he never interacted with technocrats in the Ministry of Communications and Transport regarding the RP Capital MoU.
He further told the tribunal that RP Capital would be paid US$ 2 million once Cabinet approved the sale of Zamtel.
Sichinga told the tribunal that ministers were not at liberty to ignore the legal advice.
He said in his legal opinion to the ministry, he proposed that an amendment be made to the parties' clause and literally redraft the proposal.
He said that particular clause which made reference to an individual and not the ministry was complied with in accordance with his proposal and that ZDA, which was initially omitted was later included.
Sichinga told the tribunal that he would have been happy and would have allowed his client to proceed and sign the MoU if the clauses referring to the government paying RP Capital US$ 2 million and the one on the inclusion of ZDA were amended.
Asked by defence lawyer Eric Silwamba to explain why in Malila's letter to the client [Ministry of Communications and Transport] there was no reference to his letter of November 25, 2008, Sichinga said: "I am not sure the Attorney General might be the one to explain. As I said, we coordinated in this matter and what moved him was the complaint from his representative at the ZDA. ...In fact, when I saw the draft, ZDA was a party and that gave me the satisfaction because the issue of sale had to include ZDA."
Silwamba then asked Sichinga whether Malila did not have the benefit of appreciating this transaction because unlike him [Sichinga], he did not meet with Siliya to discuss the matter.
Sichinga responded: "It is difficult for me to answer that question because he is the principal legal advisor...after he I had done my work, he could have seen things differently."
He told the tribunal that there were cases when the ministry had given advice to a client only to realise later that they had made a mistake.
Sichinga said Malila based his opinion on his [Sichinga’s] letter of November 21, 2008 and the information he got from ZDA.
He also explained that when the ministry ignores the legal advice from the Attorney General's chambers, there were sanctions to that effect.
Silwamba asked Sichinga what sanctions could be slapped in an event that the client ignored the legal advice.
Sichinga explained that since the government is the client of the Attorney General's chambers, the head of state would be able to act because he is the appointing authority.
At this point, judge Chitengi asked Sichinga what the authors of the legal advice do in such cases and Sichinga responded: "Once a client has ignored the advice, it is difficult to say 'I told you' so we try to take corrective measures, we defend our client to the latter."
Sichinga also told the tribunal that he was not aware that another MoU was signed on January 9, 2009 after the initial document on December 22, 2008.
Sichinga said he only learnt of that fact from the tribunal proceedings.
Earlier, Sichinga said his responsibilities included passing through bills presented to Parliament and drafting agreements for the government among other duties.
He told the tribunal that he received a call from Siliya requesting him to discuss the opinion he had rendered in a letter dated November 25, 2008.
"She informed me that she had understood the opinion contained in that letter," he said. "However, she thought that we have missed the point of what was trying to be achieved. At that particular point, it was not the sale of Zamtel but that the ministry was trying to do an internal evaluation of assets of Zamtel and the basis of that evaluation is what the ministry would take to Cabinet.
"It was on that understanding that we were asked to re-look at the opinion we had rendered on 21st November 2008."
Sichinga said he then reviewed his opinion based on that understanding as contained in a letter dated November 25, 2008.
"What I was saying is that the ministry is concerned that they did not want to be bound by a contract... so I looked at the provisions," Sichinga said. "In my letter of the 25th November, I said it did not matter what the parties called the understanding [MoU] but that the parties should be legally bound."
He said he was also briefed that the US$ 2 million referred to in the MoU would only be paid in an event that Zamtel was sold adding that for the purposes of evaluation, the ministry's liability would only extend to the amount of US $50,000.
"And in my letter, I addressed that caution is exercised to ensure that those proposed costs were within the ministry's threshold for the tender processes," Sichinga said. "I also advised that reference to the sale of Zamtel be excluded."
In February this year, Siliya in a ministerial statement to Parliament revealed that the government signed the MoU with RP Capital Group after the advice of Sichinga.
"I wish to inform this House that it was after the advice of the Solicitor General who dealt with issues pertaining to the MoU that we went ahead to sign the MoU on 22nd December 2008, taking into account all concerns raised," Siliya said.
A few days later, Vice-President George Kunda told journalists at a press briefing that Sichinga rendered his final opinion clearing the RP Capital MoU for execution or signing.
"This MoU was dealt with by an Acting Principal Counsel and the Solicitor General before the Attorney General dealt with the matter. The Acting Principal Counsel on behalf of the Solicitor General on 21st November, 2008 rendered his [her] opinion on the MoU. This opinion was rendered in the name of the Solicitor General. The Solicitor General rendered a further opinion on 25th November, 2008 on the same Memorandum of Understanding. On 5th December, 2008, the Solicitor General rendered his final opinion clearing the MoU for execution or signing," Vice-President Kunda said. "It must also be emphasised that the Solicitor General held further consultations with the minister of communications on this MoU. The MoU was finally signed on 22nd December, 2008 by all the parties."
Last Wednesday, Siliya told the tribunal that assertions that the December 22 MoU did not take Sichinga's advice into account were not true.
And the tribunal has adjourned to April 7, 2009 and Malila is expected to testify on the same day.
Judge Chirwa has since told the parties to make their submissions to the tribunal on the day it resumes sitting.
"Gentlemen, I want to suggest that you start preparing your submissions and when we call the Attorney General, we want the submissions," said judge Chirwa. "We can safely adjourn the matter to 7th April."
Labels: DENNIS CHIRWA, DOMINIC SICHINGA, DORA SILIYA, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS
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