ACCOUNTANT General Kennedy Musonda says the money that is being flashed around is not coming from the government but from individuals.

In an interview, Wednesday, Musonda said his role was to pay salaries, goods and services provided to the government.

When asked why government was defaulting on payments but there was money being flashed around, Musonda said it was coming from individuals and not government.

“Is it money circulating from government or circulating from the private sector? I think this is money circulating from the private sector not from government. From government, it is when I pay salaries unless that is the money you are telling me that it is circulating, this is the people who have worked for the money, when I pay for goods and services these are people who have provided for goods and services. So on the part of government there is no money that is circulating, it is from the individuals, the private sector,” Musonda said.

“We have the Financial Intelligence Centre, we have the Anti-Corruption Commission and Drug Enforcement Commission, all these monitor the activities of the banking systems so maybe if you went to FIC, they should be able to give you a better position because that is their role, that is their mandate. What we pay are legitimate payments, if we have somebody who has supplied stationary those we pay them, it doesn’t matter which political party they belong to. There is no political party that is indicated on the invoice. So we pay according to that. For the Ministry of Finance to release money, it has to have a purpose and there is no money that leaves the government without it having a purpose, it is either for goods or services. We deal with companies, we don’t deal with individuals. It is not coming from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Finance deals with legitimate businesses.”

He said it was up to other institutions to follow up on money that is being drawn from the banks.

“Government has a lot of players. As far as I am concerned, if we are paying [for] legitimate goods and services, I am happy to pay. These are the people that have provided a service for the government, we are happy to pay them. If I pay a private company, it is not my business to know how they use it. But it is the interest of these other institutions to see how they are drawing this money because this money is coming from the banks, it is not coming from anywhere. If people have drawn money from the bank, they have worked for it, it is not for my office but for other offices that are supposed to play a role,” he said.

Asked if the politicians who were flashing money around had business with government, Musonda said they could be dealing with other companies.

“I don’t know, I am not sure, I cannot point at anyone who I can say this one has got companies, you should ask them. From the payment point of view, I don’t think those businesses only deal with government, they deal with other companies. So it is not necessary that if anyone has money, then it is coming from the government, no,” Musonda said.

When further asked if he could reveal the name of the person who paid on behalf of the ex-ministers, Musonda insisted that the money came from the Patriotic Front.

“I did a press release and it was quite clear that it came from the party, it came from PF. We issued three receipts to the PF. They wrote a letter to indicate whom they had paid for, all the names. The money was meant for the names they submitted,” said Musonda.