AN Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) investigations officer has testified that Mwamona Engineering and Technical Services was awarded a contract for the construction of houses and toilets under the Lunzua Hydro Power project after it presented an alleged fake Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) tax clearance certificate to Zesco.

The officer testified that upon analysis and physical inspection of the said tax clearance certificate which Mwamona submitted to Zesco when it bid for a tender, it was found to have unusual anomalies or errors on it.

In this matter, Kambwili, his son Mwamba, Mwamona Engineering and Technical Services, Lukwesa Musonda Brano and Mulenga Makasa Kapilima are charged with; one count of making a document without authority, one count of uttering a false document, two counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretenses and 35 counts of being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.

It is alleged in one of the counts that Mwamoma Engineering and Kambwili on dates unknown but between August 1, 2014 and September 30, 2016, in Lusaka, whilst acting together by means of false pretence, dishonestly obtained US$105,220.07 from China Henan International Corporation Group Limited, purpoting that Mwamoma, a company which was subcontracted, was executing the works on Luwingu-Mansa road when in fact not.

Kambwili and Mwamona are also alleged to have presented a false ZRA tax clearance certificate to ZESCO purporting that it was genuinely issued, resulting in the award of a contract of K8 million for the construction of Houses and toilets under the Lunzua Hydro Power project, thereby obtaining pecuniary advantage of a contract sum of K1,652,482.81.

When the matter came up for continued trial before Lusaka principal resident magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, Thursday, Furguson Komba testified that sometime in April 2016, he was allocated a matter by his supervisor in which it was alleged that Mwamona was receiving favoritism in the awarding of contracts from quasi government institutions like the Road Development Agency (RDA), Zesco and the Ministry of Local Government.

He testified that the said complaint alleged that Mwamona was awarded a contract worth K1.6 million for the construction works at Lunzua hydro power station by Zesco and had submitted a tax clearance certificate which had unusual anomalies on it.

The investigations officer said other allegations were that China Henan International Corperation Group Limited had made huge deposits in accounts belonging to Mwamona which said monies were withdrawn and transferred to Chinese nationals resident in Zambia and in China.

“There were also allegations that Mr Kambwili was in possession of various sums of money and that he had made cash deposits to various accounts at his ZANACO and First National Bank (FNB) accounts between 2014 and 2016,” the witness said.

Komba said during investigations, it was discovered that Mwamona had a contract with Zesco and another one with RDA after it was subcontracted by China Henan International Corperation Group to work on the Mansa-Luwingu road and some townships roads in Mansa and Luwingu districts.

He said as regards the tax clearance certificate that Mwamona submitted to Zesco, a number of people were interviewed at ZRA and a number of documents were analysed to establish its authenticity but it was established that the certificate had errors or unusual anomalies on it.

The witness continues with his testimony on April 8, 2021.