A WITNESS told court that one of the 14 cars which was supposed to be sold to Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) workers was given to Bishop Alick Banda.
The court also heard that investigations revealed that there was a breach in the manner the same cars were disposed of through internal tender.
“According to ZRA procedure, there was a breach of not following the laid down procedure”Suzyo Ngandu, a former ZRA board secretary testified yesterday.
Ms Ngandu said three of the 14 cars were not advertised but removed from the list and one of them given to Bishop Alick Banda while another was given to Heart of Mercy, an organisation.
This is in a case former ZRA commissioner general Kingsley Chanda and ZRA former director for administration Callistus Kaoma are facing 23 counts of wilful failure to comply with procedure.
The allegations were allegedly committed between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2020.
The accused denies the charges and several witnesses have testified among them, Sitali Mulozi.
Mr Mulozi said between 2017 until 2021, used vehicles which were supposed to be internally auctioned to ZRA staff were instead reserved for the Patriotic Front.
The former ZRA administration manager at ZRA, testified that the cars were awarded to the then ruling party for use during party mobilisation and campaign activities.
He said the cars were initially part of an approved list of those on an internal tender for ZRA workers.
During continued trial yesterday, Ms Ngandu, said during the material times, investigations were being carried out at ZRA regarding disposal of cars.
She said the investigations were to establish whether the vehicles had been disposed of as per laid down procedure.
“Our investigation was from 2017-2020. 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 out. The vehicles were sold to staff but not through the recommend process” she said.
The witness added that the next vehicle batch of 14 cars 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, in fact they were not sold but just given to a person namely Derrick Mpundu”.
She said in 2019, investigations revealed that some ZRA staff who had purportedly bought auctioned vehicles claimed to have no knowledge that they had procured those same cars.
The witness said in 2020, there was another batch of 14 cars which were to be disposed of by selling them to staff members through an internal tender.
She said of the 14 cars, three were not advertised and they were removed from the list.
“Three were not advertised and they were removed from the list, of which they ended up with the charity organization called the heart of Mercy and one was given to Bishop Alick banda from the Catholic church,” the witness said.
In cross examination, a defence lawyer asked the witness if her investigation showed that there was a gate pass for Bishop Alick Banda, the witness said “No”.
“Did your investigation established that Chanda breached the process?” the lawyer asked the witness who against said No.
Further asked if during her tenure, the authority’s disposal policy was approved, she admitted.
(Mwebantu, Tuesday, September 10th, 2024)