By Daily Nation Reporter
President Hichilema said when he opened a workshop for ministers and permanent secretaries to discuss issues of procurement that some former ministers were colluding with other offices to give each other contracts some which were not delivered but paid for.
“I am asking us to restore order in the public sector procurement. K12 Billion kwacha contracts entered into for feeder roads. Contracts were given to people who have never owned a shovel or a pick. People who don’t know how to constract the roads. Some were paid 20 per cent in advance and they sit in that parliament making noise. Very courageous people. I am sure in their genetic material they were meant to have Dutch courage. If it were me, I would not even open my mouth in that parliament,” said President Hichilema.
“That was the money they were flashing, which you saw before elections. I wouldn’t say a word. I would be so embarrassed but since shame is not shared equally among us, we have to enforce measures to collect that money.
President Hichilema said it was surprising that former ministers were mocking that he had failed to manage the country.
“They are making noise in that house called parliament. They are taunting us and saying ‘we are still running the country’ Ah let us see who is running the country,” the head of state said.
“The question is how the Attorney general approved those contracts. Which chief government lawyer can approve contracts like that? I am asking you so that you can see in your mind why you are seated here. So we ministers then, giving themselves contracts …and there are PSS that allowed that. Then you have Attorney General that signed off those contracts, then you have the ministry of finance … the whole system colluded to cheat the people of Zambia. Aikona mann! No!That is not correct.”
And President Hichilema revealed that some contractors and suppliers that were being approached to deliver on contracts for which the previous government paid them for had begun threating government officials.
“I turn to fertliser contracts, the suppliers that never supplied fertilizer are now mocking us. The PS who signed letters, authorised payment against the (fertiliser) contract is now colluding with the suppliers to mock the new government. What is that?’ he said.
And President Hichilema says there was need to meet the National Road Fund Agency(NRFA)to establish how payments for road contracts were done.
“Are they here (NRFA)? So we have a date with them. NRFA comes under which ministry? …What exactly are the processes that allowed this to happen? Certainly to recover money from such issues, where does the issue of tribe come in there? I don’t see it maybe I am not normal. This is cheapening the country honestly.”
President Hichilema said the only way his government would reconstruct the country was to identify the problems and corresponding remedies which his government had embarked on.
The head of state said the leakages of financial resource needed to be stopped.
“Ministers are suppliers in the government procurement sector. They are the ones sitting to control expenditure and they are the suppliers,” he said
“If Zambians knew what was happening in the last 10 years. They would have rioted against some people.”
