ACCOUNTANT General Kennedy Musonda says he doesn’t know who paid the debt for ex- ministers who illegally stayed in office after the dissolution of parliament in 2016 because the deposit slip only indicates “donor”.

In an interview, Monday, Musonda said he was waiting for the donor to come and reveal which ministers were paid for.

“You know what happens, like you when you are depositing money into your kid’s school account? You deposit and indicate the name of your child isn’t it? In that case, we opened that account, we told the people to deposit the money in that account at ZANACO. We have a number of former ministers who went and deposited money and indicated their names on the deposit slips and then we have these bulk deposits which were done and it is indicated as a ‘donor’,” Musonda said.

“So not until they come to me and say they are the ones who actually deposited the money into this account, for now, I don’t know who deposited the money into the account. It was just deposited as a donor without indicating which ministers were paid for. So I am waiting. Maybe the donor will come and tell me which minister he paid for. Maybe today since I was not in the office but today I am in the office I might receive that information. And the moment I get that I should be able to share it with you.”

Last week, Musonda issued a statement to the effect that 99 percent of the money had been recovered.

“The Ministry of Finance wishes to update the nation on the status of refunds related to salaries totalling K4, 266, 664.10, which were paid to Cabinet Ministers, Provincial Ministers, and Deputy Ministers who served between May and August 2016. According to our records, a sum of K4, 237, 215.74 out of K4,266, 664.10 has been refunded. This represents a recovery rate of 99.3%. Therefore, the outstanding amount is now K29 448.36, only,” stated Musonda.

“Of the total repaid amount, a sum of K2, 570, 058.30 was made through bulk deposits while the remaining amount came from individuals. The Ministry of Finance, through my office, will again update the nation once the outstanding amount of K29, 448.36 is cleared in full. At that point, hopefully, this matter will be brought to a closure from a treasury point of view.”

To date, PF Secretary General Davies Mwila has not named the good samaritans who came to the aid of the former ministers.