Vice President Mutale Nalumango has defended the awarding of contracts to Grant Thornton Zambia and Price Water House Coopers to audit the Zambia Defence forces.
Patriotic Front Members of Parliament who include leader of the opposition in Parliament Brian Mundubile, Mutotwe Kafwaya, Stephen Kampyongo and George Chisenga expressed concern with alleged failure to tender the contract given to the two companies, exposing secret military information to private entities and the political interest that some politicians have in the companies awarded the contracts.
Responding to concerns during the Vice President’s question time, Mrs. Nalumango said that there is nothing wrong with the Auditor General’s Office to contract grant Thornton and price water house coopers as the law allows the auditor general’s office to sub-contract.
Mrs Nalumango who could not say whether the right procedure was followed in granting the contract to the two companies however says she believes the auditor general’s office followed the law.
She further said the findings from the audit will form part of the auditor general’s report which will be taken to parliament for scrutiny.
And Shiwang’andu MP Stephen Kampyongo has said that PF is not just going to sit back and allow constitutional breaches which are being done with impunity go on. Speaking when he and other PF MPs addressed the media at Parliament yesterday, Hon Kampyongo said the scam of hiring private auditors to audit public institutions will not be left unchecked because it is a constitutional matter.
The Lawmaker said the office of the Auditor General is provided for in the Constitution adding that any other entity which wants to do anything to audit public institutions must follow the procedure as provided for by law.
“So we will be waiting for the Auditor General to make his position known because we haven’t seen him publish any adverts to engage private auditors to audit public institutions because that is their mandate as assigned by the constitution,” he said.
And Hon Kampyongo scorned government for celebrating “70%” success in the fight against Covid-19. The Lawmaker said the New Dawn Administration found Covid-19 already under control.
“We heard them still bragging about the 70% success against Covid. I don’t think with their current broken down health systems, they could have achieved that. That achievement is more to do with the measures they found in place of fighting the Covid,” he said.
“They found Covid was already under control and so they can’t be the ones to brag about the success. Let them focus on dealing with the pertinent matters. You can’t leave that from the amount we approved for the health sector. Probably only 20% has been spent. In the meantime, people have been dying. So these are matters that we shall be dealing with when the Minsitry of health comes because we have got lives of our citizens to protect and preserve.”
These are well-known international audit firms with international professional reputation to protect. I think that is the worry of some of these guys. They know they will do a good job and expose their rot..
@Nkosi, no one doubts the competency of these two institutions to carry out credible audits. Nonetheless, it is naivete and carelessness of the highest order to let institutions with foreign ties audit the country’s most sensitive institutions such as Security Wings/Defense/military, extra. Then what next; DEC, ACC, Police and OP? What is it that this Govt, Hakahinde’s Govt, is looking for that which the Auditor General`s Office can not find? Is discovering “imagined” corruption by the previous (PF) Govt worth the risk of exposing National Security Secrets to PRIVATE FOREIGN AUDITING INSTITUTIONS and potentially to the World? If Govt cannot trust its own Constitutionally mandated bodies to do the job; why then are we wasting resources standing up these institutions? Are they just for…
Continue…
show? By the way, Grant Thornton + Hakahinde….+ NO BID CONTRACT….and that does NOT, as a citizen, make you uneasy about this whole deal? REALLYYYYYY???
One of these so called international firms audited AgriFlora and declared it viable but it was liquidated within a few days of that audit and many questioned their credibility. What matters is the motive behind the audit. If it’s a witch-hunt then they’ll find many but political power is temporary. It’s better to do the correct thing and I don’t think this correct
Grant thornton have a long association with the president so this is a corrupt deal. Someone will be arrested after leaving office.
wasting time to ask nalumango to explain issues
Nalumango does not even what is going on so her defense will always be halfbaked. Please kindly spare her for she like a two year old child who knows the parents but does not know why they do certain things.
This is similar what the MMD did when they exposed the security tunnels. This move by the UPND is not in national interest but for their 2 narrow agendas: 1. to reward their friends with tenders to make money out GRZ and 2. To create the impression that all decisions that the PF made were wrong thereby gain political capital. I advise them to review the case in which Fred Mmembe was charged with espionage and that of General Musengule. Zambia is bigger than HH and his friends. His phobia for PF and apparent hatred for ECL will one day consume him and his cohorts. It seems he hasn’t healed. What will keep him power is service delivery and not how much he demonizes ECL & PF.
Africans are really amateurs at governing. How do you hand national secrets to a foreigner ? in the name of what? Democracy?
From World factbook
Military expenditures
1.53% of GDP (2016)
1.75% of GDP (2015)
1.63% of GDP (2014)
1.36% of GDP (2013)
1.36% of GDP (2012)
country rank: 75
Military branches
Zambian Defense Force (ZDF): Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force, Zambia National Service (support organization) (2015)
Military service age and obligation
national registration required at age 16; 18-25 years of age for male and female voluntary military service (16 years of age with parental consent); no conscription; Zambian citizenship required; grade 12 certification required; mandatory HIV testing on enlistment; mandatory retirement for officers at age 65 (Army, Air Force) (2012)
Government supposed to be all about: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited…
From World factbook
“Military expenditures
1.53% of GDP (2016)
1.75% of GDP (2015)
1.63% of GDP (2014)
1.36% of GDP (2013)
1.36% of GDP (2012)
country rank: 75
Military branches
Zambian Defense Force (ZDF): Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force, Zambia National Service (support organization) (2015)
Military service age and obligation
national registration required at age 16; 18-25 years of age for male and female voluntary military service (16 years of age with parental consent); no conscription; Zambian citizenship required; grade 12 certification required; mandatory HIV testing on enlistment; mandatory retirement for officers at age 65 (Army, Air Force) (2012)”
Government supposed to be all about: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited…
Government supposed to be all about: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
The World factbook is free online.
Corrupt thugs. Didn’t we warn you!!
Corrupt thugs ? That title is reserved for PF
UK BRANCH kikikiki In your dreams
We will put this manly looking woman behind bars in 2026
2026 PF wont be around
UK BRANCH kikikiki ARE WE THAT STUPID ???
Nothing local is laka.
Are they going to ever tell us to buy Zambian?
When they were looking for Zesco poles, the search engine went to Zimbabwe an South Africa. Can’t Zaffico manage this?
The other time they sought a finance consultant, for KCM, they went to South Africa and brought RMB.Don’t we have local banks. Zambians have no capacity for anything. Does Her Hon. Nalumango make sense when explaining anything in parliament?
This is the stupidest decision ever by any government. We have government auditors with national oaths available and you want foreign ones to start counting how many bullets you have. Ba HH mwafunta?
My question: Could the wise KK or Mwanawasa done this? We have the Auditor General’s office. Can the AG and his team fail to audit?
If we are going to pay this firms to come and audit then what is the auditor generals office which is already on government payroll going to be doing? Merely checking what these auditors are doing? It’s not like they are doing it for free. Let us not waste money like this.
Let them also audit HH, it’s only fair
Zambia is no longer safe
We have a puppet, whenever whites tell him to jump, He jumps , Kiss the floor he will… Without thinking of the end results of his action this is the end results of asking whites to help you win elections in exchange for favors..But the time it’s 2026..This country will be bear. We still have issues of Africom which is a serious concern to our security as a nation.. UPND is the waste thing that ever happened to Zambia. They are in government to play.
There was too much corruption in the defence expenditure that was done with international criminals………….
From isreal with the gilfstream jet , to Poland with ZAF uniforms and china with ZAF flight simulators……..
Ask sturdy mwale………..
Zambian auditors have limited capacity to carry out international investigations…….
Hence the need to involve international auditors
Upnd are jokers…
I have been crediting this government with good dribbling skills but at this rate we won’t have a country left within a decade. Why are these people who have so much resources at their disposal not see through some of these things? Seriously, we claim to be independent but why don’t we learn from history? The more educated they are at the top, the dumber they get. Now I see why some of the best leaders happen to be ones without a university degree. It’s because they use common sense which is not always common to some people.
So you are going to give the US a detailed inventory of everything you have because from your experience these are reputable companies? In whose interest do they serve? Look at what happened to ZAMTEL? who where the auditors and how much did the government lose? PEACE is our secret w3ap0n and it scares the hell out of them. We can only hope this tender is put to scrutiny and information is given as to how it was done in the past.
The the arms zambia buys is known on the world stage………….
Zambia does manufacture any arms to keep secreate…………….
Everything you buy is known, it is how you train and your preparedness for war that is a secreate and is not being audited……….
Zambias military is not a threat to the western world where those auditing firms are from, nor……..
Is the western world a military threat to zambia
You will defend every fart from UPND!
We are in it for a very long time. Hakainde (Ba shi Anderson Junior) has been showing his true colours before he even got the powers of instruments from ECL.
Hakainde is not genuine he is one of the shallow minded conmen. How do you describe someone who lies with a straight face?
“And Hon Kampyongo scorned government for celebrating “70%” success in the fight against Covid-19. The Lawmaker said the New Dawn Administration found Covid-19 already under control”
The man needs to have his head checked….When many countries in the region(apart from Tanzania) had achieved 20+ % vaccination rates, the PF and Zambia were still under 5%.
If you do not understand things, just stay and watch, Zambia is not a tuckshop to be audited by yourself and easily intimidated Auditors. Especially on international levels, we need Auditors who can get the information. It is not about how many tanks nor antirary fire which after all we do not make ourselves.
The PF hired Lazard , an institution with a tainted reputation internationally to hide Zambias huge debt(Lazard Freres & Co charged on fraud and corruption )
UPND engage highly reputable international accounting firms PWC and Grant Thornton and the PF are making noise. The PF should be ashamed of themselves.