The $390 Million Loan Scam
By Dickson Jere
22.01.2022
I had to reread chapter twenty-eight of the controversial book by former ZESCO chairman Mbita Chitala. It has extremely shocking revelations! Government obtained a loan of USD392 million from China for installation of internet and data facilities via Smart Zambia (Cabinet Office). But government wanted the loan to sit on the ZESCO books. Unknown to ZESCO, 15% of the counter-part funding (about US$ 60 million) had already been released without ZESCO knowledge.
And where is this money?
“….it’s 15% counterpart contribution funding for the loan was not only wrongly released but also grossly abused and that many people maybe received bribes on that deal and hence the pressure on ZESCO to accept the USD392 million on-loan lent instructions,” Chitala revealed.
Interestingly, Chitala praises President Edgar Lungu for having stopped this “scam” when he heard about it. He telephoned Chitala telling him that the Smart-Zambia loan was more “scandalous than the buying of the 40 fire tenders at USD 1 million each”.
“Fortunately, the President of the republic of Zambia Edgar Lungu forewarned me of the attempted fraud and I was able to cancel the extraordinary board meeting of the ZESCO board,” Chitala further disclosed.
Chitala had summoned his board members to inform them of the deal and said he was ready to quit his position if the board accepted the bogus transaction. But the President stopped the meeting as it was not necessary.
But the question still begs – who got the USD60 million dollars?
Despite the President alerting Chitala, he claims, the same transaction reappeared through the IDC which incorporated a new company called Infratel Limited to take over the ZESCO fire network assets.
“I informed Kaluba (IDC CEO) that ZESCO could not let go it’s fiber network to third party infratel,” he said.
“ZESCO firecom network is one of the anchor for the National Security as it acts as a protective mechanism in the operation of ZESCO limited,” he added.
But the author is leaving us guessing. Since the President stopped this scam, where did the USD60 million go?
“It was also apparent that since government money had been expended without any work to show for, this would add to the other scandals of trust or common theft of public resources by politicians and public servants,” he concluded.
Jaw dropping revelations indeed!
Someone should follow up on this story! S