GBM’S LETTER DECLARING INTEREST GOES ‘MISSING’ AT MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
By Correspondent Reporter(New Dawn Newspaper)
THE letter in which former Defence Minister Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) wrote declaring interest has gone missing at the Ministry as the current Permanent Secretary Norman Chipakupaku cannot trace it.
And the prosecution has objected to the production of a photocopy of the letter Mwamba wrote to the Ministry declaring interest in October 2011.
This came to light yesterday when Mwamba presented before Lusaka Magistrate Stanford Ngobola a reply from Chipakupaku stating that he cannot find the letter he wrote in 2011 in October, declaring interest.
This is in a matter the former defence Minister is facing 24 counts of failure to declare interest, money laundering and being in possession of property suspected of being proceeds of crime.
When the matter came up for continued trial, Mwamba explained that he declared interest in writing to the then permanent secretary as guided by the Attorney General’s chambers as provided for in the Ministerial handbook and code of conduct.
He testified that he instructed his lawyers from Makebi Zulu Advocates to write the Ministry of Defence specifying the kind of documents he wanted as regards to the matter before court but that he was informed this week that the letter cannot be traced.
“I instructed my lawyers from Makebi Zulu to write the Ministry of Defence to specify the kind of documents I required and on that letter there were two attachments for easy of reference to the Permanent Secretary, the first later was dated 06 July, 2016 which was signed by the then PS madam Mbolelwa, in which she had written to Director General Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) indicating that she had in her possession a letter in which I declared interest on the 5th October 2011,” he testified.
Further, Mwamba said in his second attachment was a letter he wrote on 5th October, 2011 declaring interest as a serving minister by then.
“Your honour, the second attachment was a letter I wrote to the PS on the 5th October 2011 in which I declared interest. On the letter, there is a date stamp from the Ministry of defence, the letter was addressed to PS Ministry of Defence. The other letter was written by PS to Director General ACC and was signed by PS defence. The letter was addressed to Director General ACC. The last attachment was my letter I wrote to PS at the time I saved as Minister,” he explained.
He said after making effort to get the original copy of the letter he wrote declaring interest, he was only informed that the same letter he had requested for could not be traced through his lawyers.
“On the 5th April 2023, a response letter came from PS defence, it was addressed to my lawyer Makebi Zulu…Your honour as per the letter of 5th April, 2023 from PS defence, they are saying that they can’t trace the letter I wrote to them in 2011 on 6th October, they cannot also trace the original letter written by PS in the same Ministry, of 6th July 2016,” he stated.
He said this as he produced the letter to be part of evidence, before the prosecution objected to the production of the letters.
“The foundation is not laid for the said document to be produced as evidence as the accused did not show the steps taken to retrieve the said documents (original copies) and therefore they should be rejected from the evidence before court…,” state prosecutor Ngwira said.
And another state prosecutor a Tembo referred to a ruling the court made in the last sitting in March 2023, where rejected the production of the same document.
But Mwamba’s lawyers contended that he had done all he could to bring the said original copies before the court and that the PS had written indicating that he could not trance the original copy.
He said at no time did the PS Chipakupaku dispute the letter in question but that he did not trace the original copy.
“My client has produced a letter from Permenent Secretary were he says the request cannot be granted as they cannot trace the original of two letters dated 6th July 2016 and 5th October, 2011, …there is no standard that has been laid down as rule, it depends with circumstance in each case, and this case the original document is in custody of the Ministry of Defence which is the State, what more diligent search is my client supposed to do, other than what he has done so far? There is no diligence search that can be done by my client in these circumstances and therefore he has laid down a proper foundation for the said documents to be admitted as evidence in Court,” said Lemba one of the lawyers.
Jonas Zimba of Makebi Zulu advocates stated that the liberties of Mwamba were at state and if the court denied him chance to produce the document as part of his evidence, the outcome would be fatal.
Zimba stated that the allegations by the State against GBM were that he failed to declare his interest in writing, adding that to the contrary there was evidence to the effect that he wrote to the ministry declaring interest and that was the document the State did not want to be produced before court.
In his ruling, Magistrate Ngobola agreed with the prosecution not produce the photocopied letter GBM wrote to the Ministry of Defence declaring interest, saying he had rejected the same document in March as it failed to meet the standard foundation of evidence.
The matter was adjourned to 9th May, 2023 for continued trial.