SIXTY four former cabinet ministers and their deputies who illegally continued in office when Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2016 presidential and general elections are now demanding K15,000 each as repatriation allowances.
The 64 have however not objected to paying the K4.7 million proposed by the state, being the emoluments they are required to pay back for staying in office illegally.
This is according to a notice of non-objection to the quantum settled by the state.
“Take notice that the respondents represented by Messrs Ellis and Co, Messrs D.H Kemp and Co and Messrs Lungu Simwanza and Company did not object to the quantum of emoluments as quantified by the first respondent (state),” read the notice.
” Save that the said respondents were not paid their repatriation allowances in the sum of K15,000 per person.”
The notice further indicated that Obius Chisala, the 31st respondent did not receive his salary and allowances for two months in June and July 2016 because his contract of employment was terminated on June 8, 2016.
In July this year, the State suggested that the total amount recoverable from Ngosa Simbyakula and 63 others was K4.7 million for the period of May to July 2016.
In this matter, the Law Association of Zambia and the UPND had petitioned the 64 in the Constitutional Court in 2016 for failing to vacate office when their mandate had expired prior to the elections.
In November 2019, Attorney General Likando Kalaluka had asked the Constitutional Court to compel the Registrar of the Constitutional Court to assess the amount of money that the Patriotic Front ministers were required to pay back as directed by the court.
The State claimed that it had challenges in both addressing the recovery of emoluments and or
considering the question of indemnity as the exact emoluments (salaries, allowances and per diems) to be recovered have not been agreed by the
parties, three years after judgment.
This followed an order by the Court to refuse to reopen its judgment of August 8, 2016 in which it ordered Ngosa Simbyakula and 63 others to pay back the allowances and salaries they illegally accrued when they decided to remain in office during the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the 2016 elections.
The ministers asked the court to review its decision as it was not in their own making but Constitutional Court judge Enock Mulembe on behalf of others indicated that the Court’s adjudicatory function could be defeated if its final decisions were open to casual challenge in form of applications for revisiting or setting aside part or the entire judgment at the instance of an aggrieved party.
And in a further affidavit in support of assessment of amount due pursuant to the judgment dated August 8, 2016, filed on July 16, 2020 and sworn by Fides Kalangwa, a director of policy research and standards in the office of the accountant general at the Ministry of Finance, the State indicated that the emoluments have been duly computed by the policy research and standards for the period of May to July 2016.
“As can be seen from the said computation, the total amount recoverable from the former Cabinet ministers and former Deputy ministers for the period of May to July 2016 is in the sum of K4,778,664.10,” said Kalangwa.
“The computation was arrived at after looking at the payslips of the former Cabinet ministers and former deputy ministers.”