NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili has charged that the Patriotic Front is the political party cited in the 2018 Financial Intelligence Centre trends report for receiving about K10 million from private companies which were awarded public contracts.

And Kambwili has challenged law enforcement agencies to compel Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo to state the source of his wealth saying it does not make sense for “someone who was a street boy” not long ago to suddenly have millions to donate.

Speaking when he featured on Prime TV’s Oxygen of Democracy, Monday, Kambwili said the PF, despite not owning any businesses, was able to dish out so much money to the voters whenever there was an election because of funding from private companies as cited in the latest FIC report.

“PF is not a business. I have said it and I want to say it again, PF is not a business but look at how they spend money during elections. My dear if you were in Luanshya, you see the kind of money that was brought to Luanshya, this is what the financial intelligence unit was talking about. People were giving money like leaves from a tree in September or October when trees drop their leaves. That’s how money was being given to people in Luanshya. Now the question is, where does the PF get the money? Have you ever heard of a business that PF does? Have you ever heard of a company belonging to PF?” Kambwili asked.

“PF is a non profit making organisation, it is a political party. They don’t do any business, I can challenge anybody, there is not even one business that PF runs. When we were with President Michael Sata, did you see the donation of chitenge or the giving out of chitenges and t-shirts the way it is being done now? Can you compare? We used to have chitenges, maybe her constituency you are given 300. Today, almost everybody in the constituency can be given a chitenge, even 3 each.”

He said under Michael Sata, PF did not have vehicles in all the constituencies unlike now.

“Where are they getting the money? Of course we had well wishers who were donating, among them party members like myself, Chimumbwa and people within the party but we didn’t have as much chitenge as it is now. During President Michael Sata’s government, there was not even one constituency that had a vehicle. Today, all the constituencies have PF vehicles, all the districts have PF vehicles and they have a pool of branded vehicles that are parked at honorable Sichalwe’s garage in Chawama that are sent to where there are elections. That’s pure corruption. Where do they get that money? The Financial Intelligence report is telling us, 10 million was given from companies that were given contracts to unnamed political parties, which political party is that? Obviously it’s the PF,” he said.

And Kambwili said it did not make sense for Lusambo, “who used to be a street boy” not long ago, to suddenly have millions to donate.

“From the Kaunda time, have you ever seen where a minister can go with a truck full of mealie meal, four thousand cases of cooking oil, four thousand cases of washing powder, go at a market place, park and show-off that this is how rich we’ve become, I have now come to give what I have stolen back to the poor. Under President Mwanawasa could a minister do such a thing? Last week, a minister went and parked a truck load of mealie meal, four thousand bags, offloaded another truck full of cooking oil and he was giving to the poor. The question you and I must ask ourselves is where has that minister gotten that kind of money to go and give to the poor when a minister earns about K25,000 a month? K1.5 million is the gratuity of an MP in the whole five years. But one minister, without any track record of business, somebody who we knew as a street by before he became a minister can go and make such a donation, showing the whole world and the law enforcement agencies, the anti corruption don’t even approach him and say ‘where did you get all these things to donate?'” Kambwili said.

When asked where he got the money to make several donations in Roan when he was the area member of parliament, Kambwili said he had been in business for a long time, insisting that he could not be compared to Lusambo.

“I have been in business. Those who know me, even before I became a minister, I used to drive posh cars. Some of these people before they became ministers, they did not have even a bicycle so when I donate, people will not get surprised and they know the kind of business that I do. And remember, the ACC, the reports that were coming was ‘he has built houses with no source of income, the ACC followed me, investigated and I was able to justify where I got money to build my properties. But some of these people, like this particular minister that we are talking about, he was merely a street boy.In the Kaunda says, there was a leadership code and people were scared of doing certain things but today, you can do anything as minister and nobody will touch you. For me, I would challenge this particular minister to tell us where he got that 1.4 million because when you donate, what you donate is profit. So let him tell us what tax has he paid on that 1.4 million profit that he has made, that’s the lifestyle audit that we want because people cannot just wake up from nowhere and start donating 1.4 million worth of goods,” said Kambwili.