EX-PS DARES GOVT: Lift my oath I tell Zambians the truth over US$400 million utilisation – Stardy

Lift my oath so that I tell Zambians how the US$400 million which was a credit facility was utilised for operations at the Ministry of Defence, former Minister of Defense Permanent Secretary Stardy Mwale has urged President Hakainde Hichilema.

And Mr Mwale has denied having pocketed part of the US400 million credit facility and advised those making the accusations to do due diligence to establish if indeed the money was spent by the ministry.

He said the money never came to Zambia as it was a credit facility that was controlled by the country that facilitated the credit.

“To say Stardy Mwale bought a plane, I totally deny. I ask people to do due diligence if at all I with a few civil servants are the ones who spent  that money, we didn’t do it, it was a credit facility which was controlled by the country that gave us that money,” he said.

Mr Mwale said as controlling officer he did all the paper work and followed the laid down procedure and because the credit facility was not controlled by Zambia, all the ministry did was to ensure that staff at the ministry had all the necessary requirements.

He has since urged President Hichilema to lift the oath so that he could tell Zambians how the US$400 million was spent by ministry of Defense at the time he served as permanent secretary.

Mr Mwale said he was eager to tell Zambians the truth regarding the things the ministry procured within US$400 million which is now making citizens sleep and move peacefully.

“Let’s not hide in the US$400 million, let’s not hide in any amount that we are going to say ministry of Defense spent this, other things are not happening properly, all we looked at was our soldiers dressed properly,” he said.