PAC chairperson Howard Kunda says it is a clear case of abuse of authority for the RTSA board to meet 17 times; accumulating over K2 million in allowances when the law stipulates that a board can only have four board meetings in a year.

The latest Auditor General’s report on parastatals revealed that the Webster Nonde-led board met more times than normal in 2015 resulting in overpayment of K2,038,081 in allowances.

In an interview, Wednesday, Kunda said the board should have followed the rules of having four board meetings in a year.

“These are the things that we have always talked against because this country has rules and those rules are supposed to be followed. If the law says board meetings are supposed to be one per quarter definitely its supposed to be four times in a year. Of course it may be acceptable if there is something occurring then you would expect that maybe two or three more board meetings will be held apart from the four that is allocated in a year,” he said.

“If they are held even up to six times, that’s acceptable. But to have board meetings 17 times? That is clear abuse of authority and one would expect that such kind of issues are investigated by the investigative wings. And also to ensure that these monies that are allocated towards different sectors are used according to the intended purpose so that this country can move forward. Instead of us spending money on one thing that, if you investigate, may not even have been necessary for such kind of money.”

And Commenting on RTSA’s K62 million debt with ZRA in unpaid Pay As You Earn, Kunda wondered where the money deducted from employees was taken.

“The law is that everyone is supposed to pay Pay As You Earn and if they deduct Pay As You Earn from people then its supposed to be remitted to ZRA and that’s what is expected. We have pondered on these issues at PAC. As we were sitting we found that there are so many departments of government that were neglecting to remit Pay As You Earn to ZRA,” said Kunda.