Dick Sichembe refused to be compromised

By NATION REPORTER

DICK Sichembe, the former Auditor General refused to be compromised and that was why he had been scandalised, maligned and frustrated before he was forced to resign to pave way for the covering of the grand corruption in the UPND government, Brian Mundubile has said.

Mr Mundubile says Dr Sichembe had become the second casualty as the constitutional holder of the Office of the Auditor General after Lilian Siyuyi who had been hounded out of her office after being scandalised and maligned by the government she was serving.   

Mr Mundubile, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament says Zambians should expect no less     than massive corruption under the UPND because the new dawn administration was determined to weaken, destroy and vandalise all institutions of good governance.

He said it was the desire of the UPND government in its methodical scheme to ensure that all institutions of governance were completely weakened and compromised so that the country could be governed not according to the rule of law but to the rule of man and his whims.

Mr Mundubile said while government had succeeded in hounding out Dr Sichembe from the Office of the Auditor General, there were many more schemes meant to dilute the powers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by enacting laws that would unconstitutionally subordinate the DPP to a body without constitutional mandate.

“There was no way out for Dr Sichembe, he had to yield. From the time we saw the Ministry of Agriculture resisting to submit documents to the Auditor General for audits, we knew there was a problem. The moment we saw the leaked management letter to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had exposed questionable transactions, we knew something was wrong and it was just a matter of time before Dr Sichembe could leave.”

It was our expectation that someone from the Ministry of Agriculture should have been fired but his supervisor wanted him there. Someone refused to make available documents which were required by certain dates and that action could have impaired the credibility of the audit report but his supervisor did not find anything wrong. So, the resignation of Dr Sichembe has not come as a surprise. Dr Sichembe refused to be compromised and they made sure he was hounded out through a forced resignation,” Mr Mundubile said.

Mr Mundubile said for the period the UPND was going to be in government, Zambians shall never see any credible audit report because the government would ensure that all its corruption and maladministration scandals were covered.

Mr Mundubile, the Patriotic Front (PF) presidential candidate said the former ruling party had been questioning the appointments at the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) and those at the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) because it had realized that governance systems in the country had completely collapsed.

“They (new dawn) have basically obliterated and adulterated all governance systems so that there are no checks and balances. The government does not want to be held accountable and there shall be no accountability with the resignation of the Auditor General,” Mr Mundubile said.