FORMER Attorney General Musa Mwenye SC says it is very dangerous to have faceless, nameless people paying leaders’ debts.

On Monday, Accountant General Kennedy Musonda said he didn’t know who paid the debt for the ex-ministers who illegally stayed in office after the dissolution of Parliament in 2016 because the deposit slip only indicated “donor”

But in an interview, Mwenye wondered how the treasury could be receiving money from people they had not conducted due diligence on.

“It is a very dangerous thing to have faceless, nameless people paying our leaders’ debts. It is even more dangerous that this money shrouded in darkness is paid directly into the Treasury by this nameless faceless individual! What if these mysterious people are drug dealers or people involved in organized crime? How can our treasury be receiving money from people they have not conducted a due diligence on? We are entitled to know who is paying our leaders debts! We are also entitled to know what these faceless people are getting in return for paying the debts of a substantial number of ministers! What if tomorrow we find that this money was connected to organized crime or terrorism here or in other countries! These are serious matters which we should not trivialize,” said Mwenye.

“Our leaders should not be simplistic in dealing with national matters because these things have repercussions far beyond our borders sometimes. We don’t want our treasury to be connected to money raised through dubious and unsavory activities. Certainly anonymous, faceless and nameless payments should never be tolerated by any government. Why doesn’t this ‘donor’ want to be identified? If this money is clean and derived from a legitimate source why should it be shrouded in secrecy? If this money is not connected to things that can only be done in darkness why won’t the donor come into the light!”

In an interview, Musonda had 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,” said Musonda.

“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.”