2 MORE WITNESSES TESTIFY IN MALANJI, YAMBA CASE
…as one of them joins those that have exonerated the duo in previous testimonies
Lusaka, Wednesday, March 1, 2023 ( Smart Eagles)
TWO more witnesses have testified in the matter where former Secretary to the Treasury Mr Fredson Yamba and former Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Joseph Malanji are charged with willful failure to comply with procedure relating to procurement, and being in possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime respectively.
Director for Investments and Debt Management at the ministry of Finance, Mr Gregory Kabwe told court, Monday, that there was nothing illegal with the manner payment was made for the procurement of the property in Turkey.
Mr Kabwe narrated that in 2020, the Ministry of Finance received a request from Foreign Affairs Ministry to facilitate contraction of a loan from a Turkish Bank for the purpose of procurement of the said property.
The witness added that the request came with proposed terms of the loan from the Turkish Bank.
“When we looked at the terms, we looked at it from the perspective of the suspension of contraction of loans but we also had to analyze those terms to see if it was a concessional loan falling within the directive by Cabinet. We observed that the facility had some of the terms that made it fall outside what we could contract within Cabinet directive,” he said.
“Particularly we noticed that there was a requirement for a Bank guarantee between GRZ and the Turkish Bank before the Loan could be signed and the facility was a commercial one as opposed to a concessional Loan. We had discussions following that with Acces Bank which was in contact, as an Agent Bank, with the Turkish Bank. At some point my lady, we had a second proposal from Access Bank upon noticing that we could not propose under the terms of the Turkish Bank.”
Mr Kabwe further narrated that the proposal was that the ministry was to discuss with Access Bank so that it can lend GRZ for the purpose of the acquisition of the property, except the proposal was equally commercial and exorbitant.
“At that point, I would like to mention that I had a one on one conversation with the then Secretary to the Treasury and the purpose of my consultation was to seek guidance as to how we should handle the request from Ministry of Foreign Affairs in light of the Cabinet directive considering that the proposals that were on the Table were commercial in nature. I was prompted to seek this audience because at that time, I was receiving phone calls from the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs then following up on the facility,” he said.
“The guidance from Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Fredson Yamba, then was that we needed not to proceed with the contraction of the Loan and that we needed to remain within Cabinet directive. He also guided that the matter was sensitive and that we needed to continue buying time, with the view not to proceed. After that, my department then proceeded to have further discussions with Access Bank and essentially, on what sought of Security would go with that facility if the Bank was to lend to Government for the purpose of procuring the property in Turkey.”
The witness said he continued having discussions with Mr Yamba and on one or two occasions, “he would call me to provide updates on how we were managing the matter especially when he could be visited by Hon Malanji.”
Mr Kabwe said this was done with the understanding that he had already provided guidance to “my department” on the matter.
“After that period, we proposed to Secretary to the Treasury to communicate to Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating that the loan could not be contracted with the Turkish Bank because it was falling outside the Cabinet directive and was commercial in nature. Secretary to the Treasury then wrote to Ministry of Foreign Affairs advising them and indicated that other avenues could be considered for the procurement of the property just not by way of the Loan. The mandate of my department, that is how the matter left our hands,” he said.
“The next time I got to be close to the matter was when funding was being done by the Treasury to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At this point my lady, a cash variation had been done for about 108 million Kwacha after a request was done under Secretary to the Treasury’s approval.”
And during cross examination, the witness said the approval for purchase of Government Embassies was issued in 2015 thus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ request for a credit facility except the credit facility by the Turkish Bank was non concessional.
The witness told court that Mr Yamba wrote to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary in-charge of Administration Dr Ronald Simwinga advising them that it was not possible to contract a non-concessional loan and should instead fund the purchase through the Budget.
Mr Kabwe clarified that there is nothing wrong by doing that.
The witness said there was nothing illegal about the intention to contract a Loan and that Hon Malanji’s contact with him was for the interest of the Ministry.
He added that there was nothing sinister about Hon Malanji following up funding for the purchase of property under his Ministry.
The matter was adjourned to 6th March, 2023, pending cross examination on Ministry of Foreign Affairs Principal Internal Auditor Safira Mutambo Mutti.