ABOUT a year ago when the Ministry of Finance released the debt summary report, one of the cases that stood out was the amount of money which the Zambian government owed Mikalile Trading Company. This is a company owned by one of the most prominent local investors – Stephen Mikalile. The question which many Zambians asked was; what did Mikalile supply to the government for his company to be owed that much money? It turned out that in 2017, the Ministry of Education had signed a contract with Mikalile Trading Company worth US$401,838,720 for the supply and installation of school materials and equipment. This was followed by a report from the Auditor General’s Office that the contract was overpriced by...