By Patson Chilemba
Hakainde Hichilema and his people in UPND are not there to serve the people but to personally do business with their local and international partners, Economic Front (EF) leader Wynter Kabimba has charged.
And Kabimba said he is very disappointed with the manner leader of the opposition in parliament Brian Mundubile asked his question over alleged corruption, saying he was too modest and disarmed that Vice-President Mutale Nalumango made a mockery of his question.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Kabimba said he was very disappointed in the manner Mundubile asked his questions, saying he should have been more forceful as the issues he raised demanded President Hichilema should be taken to account for.
He said Mundubile did not sound like an opposition leader, but like a member of the UPND, saying he was so modest, disarmed that he allowed the Vice-President to “really just make a mockery of the whole issue.”
“The Vice-President just made a mockery of the whole question when she was answering because the question itself was so compromised. The issue at hand is this; (1.) HH must tell this nation if he has divested his interests in Grant Thornton, if he has divested his shares in Grant Thornton, because what we know as a country is that HH is a partner in Grant Thornton and therefore you can’t get a contract awarded to Grant Thornton in a matter where HH himself has made it clear that there were ghost suppliers of goods and services to the Ministry of Finance or to Government,” Kabimba said. “That in itself compromises that audit. That is issue number one. Issue number two is how did the minister of Finance pick on these companies, Grant Thornton, KPMG, Coopers Price Water House? Because I remember during the time HH was making appointments, that one of the appointed people, I think one of his economic advisors and please check this for me, one of his economic advisors is from Coopers Price Water House. That I remember very well. So you have Coopers Water House which is being awarded a contracts when one of the officials is formerly from Coopers Price Water House. Where is the transparency there?”
Kabimba wondered if “this was not the same corruption that HH has been talking about.”
“So instead of putting it the way Mundubile was putting it ‘oh! No! Is your government serious about fighting corruption?’ This is just nothing but corruption. The third point is was there a tender? What was the criteria used for picking on the companies? Fourthly, did the Auditor General who is constitutionally empowered, who is vested with the authority to audit government ministries and government departments, did the Auditor General say to the Ministry of Finance that he doesn’t have the capacity to undertake that?” Kabimba asked. “The Minister of Finance has to tell us whether the Auditor General said to him that he does not have the capacity as a department to audit those suppliers or to undertake that audit.”
Kabimba said in the absence of that, “the UPND government is probably or will probably be more corrupt than the PF government which they allege was corrupt because they have started patronizing themselves, they have started lacking transparency in 12 months of them being in office.”
“And it is clear that the UPND guys, including their president HH are not in this thing for governance. They are in this thing for business. That is what is coming out to be clear. They are not in this thing for governing the Zambian people or making the lives of the Zambian people better than they found them,” said Kabimba. “They are there to make money and to do business with their local business partners and also the international business partners. So the Ministry of Finance must answer these questions clearly.”
