FORMER Cabinet and deputy ministers who received emoluments after the dissolution of Parliament in 2016 have not objected to the K4.7 million quantified by the State, as money they are required to pay back.

But the said former ministers and their deputies have told the Constitutional Court that they were not paid their repatriation allowances amounting to K15,000 per person.

Last month, the Ministry of Finance had disclosed to the Constitutional Court that former Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers who received emoluments after the dissolution of Parliament in 2016 were supposed to pay back over K4 million.

Fides Kalangwa, a Director-Policy Research and Standards in the Office of the Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance told the court that the total amount recoverable from the former Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers for the period May to July, 2016 was K4,778,664.10.

And according to a notice of non-objection to the quantum settled by the Attorney General, the former ministers and their deputies have not objected to the K4.7 million quantified by the State

“Take notice that the respondents represented by Messrs Ellis and Co., Messrs D H Kemp and Co. and Messrs Lungu Simwanza and Company do not object to the quantum of emoluments as quantified by the first respondent (Attorney General). Save (I) that the said respondents were not paid their repatriation allowances in the sum of K15,000 per person. (ii) the 31st respondent, Obius Chabu Chisala did not receive his June and July 2016 emoluments as his contract of employment was terminated on June 8, 2016,” read the notice.

In this matter, the State through the Attorney General’s chambers had asked the Constitutional Court to assess the amount of money that Ministers who continued to earn a salary after dissolution of Parliament in 2016 were required to pay back.

This was as a result of the Constitutional Court judgment of August 8, 2016 which ordered Cabinet, Provincial and deputy ministers to pay back to the State all the allowances and salaries they received while the National Assembly was dissolved.

The judgement was rendered in a matter where the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and UPND through its secretary general Steven Katuka, challenged the continued stay in office of the ministers after Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Katuka and LAZ petitioned the court to order the ministers who stayed in office after dissolution of Parliament to pay back the monies they received.

They cited the Attorney General, Ngosa Simbyakula and 63 others as respondents.