….as they reaffirm that legal procedure was followed in the purchase of property in Turkey
Lusaka, Tuesday, February 21, 2023 (Smart Eagles)
As trial continues in the case where former Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba and former Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji are charged, two more witnesses have testified that legal procedure was followed in the purchase of property in Turkey.
In this case, Mr Yamba is accused of having failed to follow procedure relating to the buying of a property in Turkey while Hon Malanji is accused of being in possession of properties and assets suspected to be proceeds of crime.
And the 28-year-old economist narrated today before Magistrate Irene Wishimanga who is sitting under the Economic and Financial Crimes Court that her supervisor Medson Moyo told her in June 2021 that there was a K45,800,000 for procurement of property in Turkey.
Ndayanja Mwale Daka, who works as the budget analyst in the Ministry of Finance under Financial Audit Department said her supervisor then instructed her to do a write-up seeking for authority to use the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this funding.
“And I proceeded to do the write-up. I did the write-up addressing it to the director of budget Joseph Nonde under the seal was my assistant director and the principal budget analyst…There was another write-up where the PS wrote to the Secretary to the Treasury seeking for approval…,” she said.
During cross examination, the witness revealed that there was nothing wrong with the procedure she undertook.
She added that even internal audit stamped her request, signifying the approval and indicating that there was nothing wrong with the request.
Meanwhile, the second witness, Principal Accountant at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Tikimoja Stephen Sichembe also narrated that “in 2020, around December we (the accounting unit) received an instruction to process the payment of procurement of the property in Turkey… We checked the system and we saw that funds were available. We started examining the authorities and what we saw is the letter which director budget Joseph Nonde which he did to the secretary to the treasury through the permanent secretary budget and economic affairs and we saw that it was approved by the Secretary to the Treasury,” he said.
“So when saw that all these authorities were there that is when we started processing the payment. However, we did not have the budget. We advised the Director of Finance Ministry of Foreign Affairs to handle the payment since it was falling under her portfolio. She declined, she said she was not competent to handle the payments involving foreign currencies. Her name is Tamara Sakala Ngoma…”
He further narrated that Ms Ngoma just provided the Ministry of Finance with the banking details.
“We liaised with the office of the accountant General, treasury service department on how we can process the payment…K108.4 million…. the treasury rehearsed with the bank of Zambia on how we can process the payment. The BOZ advised that we can do the transaction in five butches…. The first one we processed was around 2nd December 2020 and the final butch was towards the end of December 2020. The transmission copy was produced…,” he said.
“It was processed in five butches…In 2021 we received another funding amounting to K45.8 million, we also processed thought the Bank of Zambia, the money was transmitted to Turkey. In 2022, we were visited by the office of the Auditor General who were conducting the national audit who also questioned us on certain payments and this was one of the payments…. both of them…We provided the answers.”
In his cross examination, Mr Sichembe said the Secretary to the Treasury has the authority to do the funding if the supplementary budget is not feasible.
He confirmed that the money was paid for the procurement in question.
