WITNESS IMPLICATES ARCHBISHOP ALICK BANDA IN DUBIOUS ZRA CAR DISPOSAL CASE
A COURT witness in the Economic and Financial Crimes Court has implicated outspoken Catholic priest, Bishop Alick Banda, naming him as a recipient of a free vehicle, from the Zambia Revenue Authority.
The vehicle is said to be among the 22 cars that were illegally disposed of by two senior-most officials, at the Revenue Authority.
In her evidence in chief before principal resident magistrate Sylvia Munyinya, former Board secretary at ZRA, Suzyo Ng’andu said that the Revenue Authority received a complaint that some vehicles were sold without following procedure.
Ng’andu said investigations were instituted in the matter, in accordance with the internal disciplinary procedures to establish whether the cars were disposed of in accordance with the law.
She said the period under review was from 2017 to 2020.
“We looked at the first batch of vehicles put up for disposal in 2017, we discovered that there were 29 vehicles put up of which, seven were not advertised for sale, the vehicles were sold to staff but not through the recommend process,”Ng’andu said.
“The next batch was approved for sale in 2018, they were 14 vehicles approved by the board and three of the 14 were sold to non members of staff, infact they were not sold but just given to Derick Mpundu, Heart of Mercy and Bishop Alick Banda.”
She told the court that investigations further revealed that some members of staff purported to have bought eight vehicles, expressed ignorance about having purchased any vehicles.
“In 2020 there was another of 14 vehicles to be disposed off, our investigations led us to those vehicles, three were not advertised and they were removed from the list, of which they ended up with a charity organisation called the Heart of Mercy and one was given to Bishop Alick Banda from the Catholic Church,”Ng’andu disclosed.
She said the vehicles were supposed to be sold to members of staff, through an internal tender.
“The board that gave authority to the disposal of motor vehicles were in two sets: the first set was board chairperson Chileshe Kapwewe, AJ Lungu, Mr Musukwa, Mrs Zimba; the next set of the board was chaired by Bwalya Chiti, Mr Miti, Dr Kalyalya, Lyamba, Mrs Otten and the Commissioner General during this time was Mr Kingsley Chanda,” Ng’andu said.
She said there was a procedural breach in the manner the cars were disposed of.
During Cross examination by lawyer James Mataliro the witness said she does not know when the disposal policy was approved by the board.
When asked about the issues raised by the whistle blower, the witness said according to the whistleblower some vehicles were sold without being advertised.
She said the responsibility for the disposal of the cars was under the director administration Calistus Kaoma.
When asked if she was aware that Mpundu was given the vehicles so that he could fix them from his garage, the witness denied.
Ng’andu was further asked if at all Mpundu breached the law by taking his client’s vehicles to the garage for fixing but, she responded in the negative.
She also confirmed that for the vehicles received by Heart of Mercy, and Bishop Banda, there was no policy that vehicles bought by members of staff should not end with third parties.
During cross examination by Wynter Kabimba, the witness maintained that three vehicles were given to Derick Mpundu, Heart of Mercy and Bishop Alick Banda.
She said the gate pass indicated that Mpundu picked the vehicles from ZRA.
Ng’andu said she was not aware that some of the vehicles were sold through direct biding.
Asked if Chanda breached procedure, the witness denied saying it was Kaoma who did not follow the laid down procedures.
In this matter former ZRA director general Kingsley Chanda and Calitus Kaoma are charged with abuse of authority of office for disposing of 22 vehicles belonging to ZRA without following guidelines and prejudicing government.
Among the vehicles are 13 Mitsubishi Pajeros, a Nissan hardbody, a Nissan Tida, Nissan microbus, a Toyota Corolla, four Toyota Hilux, and a Toyota Prado.
Trial continues on September 17.
Kalemba
WITNESS IMPLICATES ARCHBISHOP ALICK BANDA IN DUBIOUS ZRA CAR DISPOSAL CASE
