LCC AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT EXPOSES THEFT OF K1.1 MILLION AT LUSAKA CLOTHING FACTORY AS ‘MAFIA’ MANAGER IGNORES SUSPENSION…

but manages to have senior HR officer and Deputy Director Engineering transferred to Rural Councils

The Lusaka City Council Audit and Risk committee chaired by Kamwala Ward Councillor Hon. Mainda Simataa appears to have opened a Pandora’s box, with latest revelations showing that Lusaka Clothing Factory has lost over K1,120,214 through undeposited, undeclared and unaccounted for revenue between the period 1st January to 31st May 2024.

However, in a bizarre twist worthy of a Mafia gangster story, one of the commercial managers being queried at the factory (see suspension letter below) and facing multiple charges- including stealing, fueling, driving, crashing and then hiding a council vehicle under engineering department (Nissan Hardbody BAA 3057) for 4 months in Kabangwe, has successfully engineered the transfer of Deputy Director Engineering Whitney Kolombo and Lisa Chishimba Mulenga, the HR officer who charged him; sending her to the far flung DRC border-town of Chililabombwe council with her two babies who recently joined her in Lusaka, as she is only 11 months at her new HR job.

Meanwhile, Audit Committee Chairperson Mainda Simataa has expressed grave concern that the stubbornness, gross insurbodination and lawless mafia behavior being exhibited by the cited junior officers in the Audit queries is allegedly being encouraged by the culprits’ close family relations stationed at the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), and their favorite weapon of choice for terrorizing council workers getting in their way, is “transfer with immediate effect” to the furthest and remotest rural council as punishment and a lesson to others.

“If the cited officers who both have a record of serious disciplinary issues on their HR file (see documents) are not suspended by next week Monday, and transfers against their innocent victims are not rescinded, then the Audit Committee will have no choice but to escalate the matter and seek Presidential and Ministerial interventions because LCC is in danger of going back to the days of council workers going 6 months without pay due to the massive industrial-scale looting going on before our eyes” said Councillor Simataa.

Friday 12 July, 2024
LUSAKA