Ministry of General Education Permanent Secretary Henry Tukombe on Tuesday told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that ZANACO Bank should refund government the misappropriated K3 million involving 12 transactions bearing different initials and names.
Tukombe said ZANACO was to blame for the stolen funds because there was no way it could honour a name bearing different features.
And former accountant at the Ministry of General Education Harry Kanyama explained that ZANACO left the ministry in limbo when they failed to produce all the used cheques of the transactions.
Tukombe had earlier indicated that ZANACO Bank, Ministry of General Education, and Ministry of Finance were involved in the fraud in which K3,488,327 involving 12 transactions were paid to three officers namely I Sibajene, Moses Thole and Lawrence Bwalya.
“I did mention that there are three pillars involved, ZANACO, Ministry of General Education, Ministry of Finance. And we are not seated. We have pushed the matter up to the Accountant General so that we can compel ZANACO to look at the issue that they should refund the money because when you look at the parameters, how do I honour a name bearing different features? It means they are also to blame anyway,” he said.
When the Ministry of General Education appeared before PAC on Tuesday morning, the chief accountants who were in the ministry during the time of the fraud where absent as one had been transferred to the Ministry of Finance whilst the other was with the office of the Auditor General.
PAC summoned the two chief accountants and MPs took turns grilling them. Look out for verbatim in tomorrow edition.
2 Responses
Zondwe is doing great works am seeing her achieving a lot in her proffesion
Tukombe is not being sincere here. If he terms the misappropriation as fraud, the question to be asked is, has he reported the matter as such to the relevant law enforcement agencies unlike him asking the Accountant General to compel the bank. It’s only when the case of fraud has been established and parties liable have been identified and if the bank is one party that the bank will be liable to refund the funds.
Is Zambia Police or DEC- Anti-Money Laundering Unit investigating this case? If not why?