By Kombe Mataka
THE biggest tragedy the country has is to follow the smoke and leaving the fire behind, says acting PF secretary general Nickson Chilangwa.
Speaking when he featured on Diamond Live Programme on Thursday evening, Chilangwa said he was amazed about how the issue of alleged misappropriation of funds meant for the construction of FTJ University in Mansa during the PF regime was blown by the UPND government.
“In this country the biggest tragedy the country has is to follow the smoke and leaving the fire behind. And because of that tragedy, we have got in place some characters and human beings we have placed in governance who would want people to run away with the smoke and leave the fire behind,” he said. “The FTJ University, I agree, is a project that was started by His Excellency president Michael Sata in 2013…When president Edgar Lungu came into government, he picked up the story and said ‘I am going to run with the project’. So, he came to cabinet and [it was] approved by 18th July 2019.”
Chilangwa said he had failed to explain where money allocated to the fund was because as a provincial minister, he could not sign for any project but merely supervise.
“Something along the way went wrong. This is where we come back to the issue of running away with the smoke and leaving the fire behind. This is what is happening. I have said on the 18th July 2019 the contractor was on site. Yes, he was on site. Was work going on? Yes. Did the Ministry of Finance assure me that money was available? Yes, I was assured,” he explained. “I am amazed you as a journalist, do you listen to yourself? Do you listen? This is what goes on in this country. Can I tell you that at the end of 2016 there was a decision by cabinet? There was an announcement by cabinet through the Ministry of Finance to say ‘we are under negotiations with IMF; and IMF are saying we have over borrowed and we need to slow down on capital projects’. It was all here. Where you do live. In this country?”
Chilangwa affirmed that as of 2019 he found the contractor on site.
“In 2019 in July, I was at the project. I found the contractor on site. The minister of finance told me the constructor was on site. But we as government need a loan and raise counterpart funding – about US $33 million,” he explained. “And by the way, the counterpart [funding] of $33 million was for the two universities: the FTJ University and Northern University. That is money the government [was supposed to provide] as counterpart funding. I was not in charge of money or payments. I am not the one in charge of paying.”
Chilangwa said people should stop vilifying him and PF over the FTJ University saga because there was a new government that must take up the issue.
“Is there anyone who has been indicted for chewing this money? This is the problem. This is the tragedy of this country. We have characters in governance here who do not want to be truthful. When this entire structure started, who was the finance minister? Honourable (Felix) Mutati. He has not died. He is still in this government…” said Chilangwa. “I like to believe honourable (Dr Situmbeko) Musokotwane is a truthful and honest man. He will be able to take you through the process of how the money was released. Who was it released to? I am not in a privileged position, no mwana (my friend)! Listen naiwe (you), your colleagues who have never been in governance; is not abracadabra. It is not what you say ‘I am going to do this by 14:00 hours’, no. There are processes and procedures. We have got colleagues at the Ministry of Finance who are keeping quiet when all this is going on. What is the agenda? To paint us black? There are records there that money has a trail. Why are they being economical with the truth? Why are they whipping people’s emotions?”