Purchase price for the chancery in Turkey and staff houses was inflated by $10.3 million – Witness

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Joseph Malanji

Purchase price for the chancery in Turkey and staff houses was inflated by $10.3 million – Witness

AS the State continues to unmask how the National treasury was allegedly ripped off, under the guise of procuring property for Zambian missions abroad by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Economic and Financial Crimes Court has heard that the contract price for the purchase of a chancery in Turkey was inflated from US$9 million to US$19.5 million.

Kwaleyela Mukelabai, a Senior Assistant commissioner under the anti-money laundering unit at the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) said, during investigations he established that money was sent to Turkey by the ministry of Finance, before the contract for the procurement of property could be approved by the Attorney General.

In this case fomer secretary to the treasury Fredson Yamba is accused of failing to adhere to guidelines relating to the management of public resources, and is jointly charged with Joseph Malanji, a former minister who is accused of possessing property suspected to be proceeds of crime.

In his testimony before principal resident magistrate Irene Wishimanga, the witness said no approval was sought from the Zambia Public Pricurement authority (ZPPA), for the purchase of chanceries and staff houses for missions abroad.

Mukelabai said he interviewed Lydia Kwibisa, who was the in-house legal counsel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who explained that, in December 2020 she received a one paged contract drafted in Türkçe from the Permanent Secretary, Dr Ronald Simwiinga regarding the procurement of properties in Turkey at a price of US$19,500,000 and she was asked to send to the Attorney General’s office for approval.

“The document was approved by former solicitor general Abraham Mwansa. I interviewed Mr Mwansa to find out how a one paged contract with specific conditions was approved in its form and content,” he explained.

Mukelabai told the Court that Mwansa said, he could not recall whether the contract had other accompanying documents.

He said he decided to go to Turkey for further investigations and he interviewed the accountant for the Zambia mission, Kennedy
Sankenga who disclosed that the procurement was dealt with at high level and only the ambassador, the late Joseph Chilengi, Joseph Malanji and himself (Sankenga) were the only people who knew about the process involving the procurement of the 12 properties.

“He mentioned that documentation pertaining to the transactions of the procurement of the property were kept under lock and key by the ambassador and payments to lawyers, estate agents, among others were processed separately. There was a separate backing sheet for operations and backing sheets involving the procurement of 12 properties,” Mukelabai said.

“Whilst gathering documents, I came across a payment voucher of $4,868,000 to Burhan Asaf Shafak it also had letters of instruction written in Turkish and English attached to the same.”

He said he noticed that the one paged contract signed by Mwansa was at variance with the 45 paged contract he found in Turkey, which had payment vouchers attached to it.

“I noticed that on December 28, 2020 there were three major activities that were of interest to me during the investigation that happened that day: Mr Malanji arrived in Turkey, on the same day the contract which was different was signed and the US$4, 868,000 was transferred from the Zambian Embassy dollar account to a Mr Burhan Asaf Shafak.”

Shafak was a lawyer who represented the landlord, who sold the chancery to government.

He said he discovered a letter to the işBank, for payment of US$2,095,000 to Shafak. Other vouchers were $195,000 to Mero for real estate services, another US$60,000 to Mr Tan Zapata for legal services.

“Another document was called an invoice it was outlining how the total funds received by Burhan were used. It was US$6,877,000. Mr Sankenga said on December 29, 2020 ambassador Chilengi instructed him to go to the bank where he was expected to escort Burhan for transactions at the bank,” Mukelabai said.

“Mr Sankenga explained that he escorted Burhan because the previous week, Burhan had gone to book for the withdraw of the money over the counter, and the bank told him it would be approved if the people who paid him were available.”

He said according to Sankenga, $4,600, 000 was withdrawn over the counter by Burhan but, the bank statement showed that US$4,768,000US$ was put in the bags that were later taken to Malanji at Sheraton Hotel.

He said general Kavuma who was the defense attaché was asked to make a fresh clearance for Malanji’s private jet, which was scheduled to leave at 14:00 hours but he couldn’t leave because Sankenga had delayed to take the money.

It was reported that the late Chilengi, pleaded with general Kavuma to engage his colleagues so that Malanji’s bags could not be searched at the Airport.

“General kavuma said he was not comfortable with the instructions because he was in uniform, and informed his colleagues that, the minister’s entourage goes straight to the plane because it had delayed and that’s exactly what happened and the minister sped off,”he said.

Mukelabai said according to Betty Namukoko, Malanji’s jet touched down on December 29 around 02:00 hours, and she and others had gone to welcome him.

He said he interviewed the real estate agent that was engaged by the embassy, who gave him quotations of the chancery building and staff house depending on the location, which was about US$9.2 million.

“The contract price which was US$ 19.5 million dollars was not reflective of the properties on the ground. According to the quotation of US$9.2 million, I noticed that it was inflated by 10.3 million dollars,” Mukelabai said.

He said out of the US$7.1 million which was sent to Turkey by the Ministry of Finance ($5 million and 2$ million) about nine properties could have been purchased, but instead there was only one property that was bought in August 2021.

Mukelabai added that he tried to interview Burhan to give an account of how the money was spent, but he threatened to unleash Turkish authorities on him, on the premise that he had no authority to speak to him.

“The political attaché tried to talk to him and said, the only reason we were asking him about the property was because the ambassador was late. He still didn’t cooperate we survived the threat and drove back to Ankara,”said Mukelabai.

By Mwaka Ndawa

Kalemba August 27, 2024.

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