WHEN AUDITOR GENERAL DICK SICHEMBE EXPOSED CORRUPTION AT ACC, ZAMMSA AND UNDER FISP, HIS SECURITY WAS WITHDRAWN BY THE STATE AND HE WAS QUICKLY HOUNDED OUT
WHEN AUDITOR GENERAL DICK SICHEMBE EXPOSED CORRUPTION AT ACC, ZAMMSA AND UNDER FISP, HIS SECURITY WAS WITHDRAWN BY THE STATE AND HE WAS QUICKLY HOUNDED OUT
It is only the very naive who will believe that Dr Dick Sichembe resigned his position as Auditor General, the position he attained after 28 years in the public service, on his own volition.
You citizens should consider the following chronology of developments in this saga in order to understand fully what kind of state operations Zambia is dealing with under the United Party for National Development(UPND) government.
To give you proper perspective, we shall trace this story from its beginning in March 2023 when Patriotic Front Lunte Member of Parliament, Mutotwe Kafwaya, raised a question in parliament asking why the government was contracting private firms to audit the Ministry of Defence, when this was usually done by the office of the Auditor General.
Minister of Finance Situmbeko Musokotwane, in justifying this action which several MPs saw as having potential to compromise defence and security operations of the State, told parliament that the Secretary to the Treasury had power to appoint external auditors in liaison with the office of the Auditor General.
When Kafwaya backed his assertion by reading a relevant constitutional provision, it must have become clear to Dr Musokotwane and his government colleagues that there was a major lapse in their thinking, resulting in this action being a violation of law. The involvement of the Auditor General was an afterthought.
Dr Musokotwane and Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa then called Auditor General Sichembe for a meeting, and tried to prevail upon him to sign an appropriately backdated letter issuing instructions for the audit of defence and security operations by private firms.
Dr Sichembe refused to comply, for the reason that he did not know what conditions of engagement had been agreed between the private audit firms and their government promoters.
After this initial refusal by Dr Sichembe, the meeting to try and persuade him was escalated to State House, where, after an attempt to intimidate him with an accusation that he was Patriotic Front(PF) sympathiser, he was again asked to sign the backdated letter.
Again Dr Sichembe refused and advised President Hakainde Hichilema to instead use his executive powers to do what his government wanted to accomplish through the audit of defence and security agencies using private firms.
Drastic action against Dr Sichembe followed. He was surendered to the Secretary to the Cabinet. When he met Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa, Dr Sichembe asked that this office be used to correct the impression created by Dr Musokotwane that the Secretary to the Treasury can hire external auditors for government work.
But Mr Kangwa is said to have pleaded that the Finance Minister was his senior and so would rather have the statement the latter made in parliament stand. He advised Dr Sichembe to just go and work.
Dr Sichembe tried to go back and work but, by then a decision had been made to find something on him to effect his ejection from office.
The “State Mafiosi” settled on the issue of allowances he received and dramatised it so that they seemed illegal.
Unfortunately they discovered that Kangwa also received the same allowances when he was Acting Secretary to the Cabinet. So did Secretary to the Treasury Nkulukusa, senior officials at the Ministry of Education and Drug Enforcement Commission officers.
Those who received allowances from this same account totaled 3600 government officers.
How then do you zero in on Dr Sichembe (who was Accountant General when he got the allowances for attending sittings of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee(PAC) out of the 3600 who received allowances?
Then the genius idea popped up to actually gain two objectives with the exercise – the field was narrowed down to 18 senior officers, so that Dr Sichembe could be axed, and also the Office of the Auditor General could be hollowed out by removing objective officers and replacing them with pliant UPND sympathisers.
But there was still one problem.
How do they arrest Dr Sichembe for receiving the allowances, but do nothing about the Ministry of Finance Controlling Officer, Mukuli Chikuba (a UPND informer while the party was in opposition), who authorised the payments, without raising eyebrows?
It was at this point that Dr Sichembe and the 17 others approached the Our Civic Duty Association (OCiDa), to share their plight and misgivings about the selective nature of investigations and arrests.
OCiDA went to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to meet Director General Tom Shamakamba over these matters, and asked why Controlling Officer Mukuli Chikuba had not been arrested.
Mr Shamakamba told them that Chikuba was being reserved as a state witness, and was also key in handling International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes. He also told the meeting that there was also a plan to turn Secretary to the Treasury Nkulukusa into a state witness in the cases against the 18 officers.
OCiDA queried this stance vehemently and challenged Mr Shamakamba. The meeting ended on that note, and Mr Shamakamba proceeded to go outside the country on business. Subsequent attempts by OCiDA to get clarity on this issue when Mr Shamamakamba returned only yielded information that State House had instructed that Chikuba should not be arrested.
The agenda of getting rid of Dr Sichembe having stalled because as a Constitutional Office holder he could not be pushed out easily, in the meantime, another plan was hatched.
Acting Auditor General Ron Mwambwa was tasked to report Dr Sichembe to the Judicial Complaints Commission(JCC) for two issues – that the Office of the Auditor General had purchased a Range Rover for K3.2 million, and that he had personally bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee at book value.
Apart from the strange fact of reporting to the JCC when he was not a judicial officer, both items were lame accusations. The Range Rover was recommended by the Office of the President for security upgrades for the office, which accounted for the additional cost, and the same facility was also enjoyed by the Director General of the DEC.
As for the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dr Sichembe had followed all government procedures and fully paid for it using his own resources.
After consultations with senior lawyers on the matter, OCiDA took it to the Board of Commissioners of the ACC, chaired by Musa Mwenye, seeking to understand what was going on.
The Board called a meeting at which the arrest of Chikuba was put to a vote. It was the ACC Board of Commissioners who voted to have Chikuba arrested.
However, unlike other, the ACC decided to make Chikuba’s arrest very discreet, released him without sureties and promptly, ensured there was no media coverage.
Unfortunately, Chikuba himself shared his arrest with the other 18 officers already under arrest.
Realising that five months after arresting Dr Sichembe there had been no movement to take him to court, the UPND government made their desperate last move.
Mr Ron Mwambwa called Dr Sichembe to inform him that he had withdrawn the complaints he had laid against the latter at the JCC, without any further explanation.
Before this had sunk in, Dr Sichembe received another call, this time from President Hichilema’s Legal Adviser, Christopher Mundia, who informed him that a plan had been worked out with Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Oliver Kalabo, for him to be retired, being deemed to have reached the retirement age of 65.
If he accepted to resign, no court action would be taken against him.
Is it possible that President Hichilema, famed for micromanaging government operations and projects, could not have known about all these machinations against Dr Sichembe? We think not.
After initially contacting OCiDA to discuss this offer, and being advised not to resign, pressure on Dr Sichembe was racheted up, a resignation letter was drafted for him and his communication was demobilised, so that he could not consult any further.
By the time it was restored, State House had issued a statement that President Hichilema had accepted his resignation.
Dr Sichembe later contacted OCiDA and said the following:
That he was sorry to have disappointed OCiDA. Pressure on him became too much to bear because since March, 2023, he has spent all his time going to renew his police bond.
“But I know why they have done this. It is because of the Ministry of Defence audit, the Alpha Commodities fertiliser audit at the Ministry of Agriculture, and the teachers recruitment programme. All this was supposed to be in the September 2023 report of the Auditor General to Parliament, and I was the one to sign it. This message I have sent to you OCiDA, I have also sent to Acting Auditor General Ron Mwambwa, and I have told him people will be arrested one day, and I will speak one day.
Once again sorry for disappointing you. They really broke me down so that I resign. But in auditing a paper trail always remains.”
With these words, Dr Sichembe has departed,a casualty of his own professionalism, forced out by an agenda that seems to be promoting regionalism in key government institutions.
Goodnight
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