PTAZ reports fuel importer to DEC for money laundering

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:01:50 +0000

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

WE HAVE officially reported Lake Petroleum to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) for money laundering and forgery and we expect a good case from the commission to rid the sector of economic saboteurs, the Petroleum Transporters Association of Zambia (PTAZ) has said. 

PTAZ secretary general Benson Tembo told the Daily Nation yesterday that it had decided to officially report the matter to DEC because it was alive to the fact that the institution could not depend on media reports to institute investigations.

Mr. Tembo said his association will exhaust all available channels in its quest to ensure that culprits who were sabotaging the fuel sector were uprooted as there could be chaos once Government disengaged from the sector if the situation remained unaddressed.

He said members of the association had no personal interest in the case but were driven by the passion to help Government weed out challenges in its collection of revenue, adding that the PTAZ will not relent in demanding for justice despite being betrayed by those that needed to take a keen interest.

He said it was clear that Lake Petroleum’s activities in the importation of fuel from January to March when its tankers were impounded bordered on fraud and forgery and that there were external factors that contributed to the criminal activities that should also be dealt with.

“It is no longer news that Lake Petroleum were forging documents to import fuel into the country under the disguise that it was for Government when it was feeding the Continental Oil depot in Kapiri-Mposhi which it was using for its own business even after the ban was effected and this resulted into the country losing revenue. “That is not all. There are people in border areas who were playing accomplices to this illegality because no one can forge documents at the borer without the help of those manning it.  All those should be dealt with because they have betrayed the trust of the appointing authority. People should be arrested as deterrence to would-be offenders for this criminal activity,” Mr. Tembo said.

Meanwhile, some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have appealed to the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) to investigate reports that some companies were supplying the commodity at less than the order price to commercial consumers.

Anonymous sources said there were some companies which were offering fuel to commercial users at a far much reduced price than the order prices obtaining at TAZAMA, a development which had created unfair competition.

They argued that it was not possible for any OMC getting its stocks from TAZAMA to offer the commodity at a give-away price and that such OMCs might be bringing the commodity into the country from cheaper sources and that could create a problem if not curtailed.

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