BY NATION REPORTER
THE Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been challenged to immediately summon Ministry of Tourism Minister Rodney Sikumba and his Permanent Secretary Evans Muhanga for alleged abuse of authority over the illegal cancellation of the Safari Hunting tender in May last year.
Governance activist Isaac Mwanza has said that the High Court has clearly indicted Mr Sikumba and Mr Muhanga by ruling that an illegality was committed in the cancellation of all the 19 Hunting Concession Agreements and the person who had ordered Mr Muhanga to cancel the dully awarded contract should tell the nation the way forward.
Mr Mwanza said now that the courts of law had declared the re-advertised Safari Hunting tender a nullity, action should be taken against Mr Sikumba and Mr Muhanga for brazenly ignoring the legal advice of Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha.
Mr Mwanza said it was annoying that government was likely to lose in excess of K65 million with K64 million being demanded by the Community Resource Boards (CRBs) and K1 million being costs on a case that should have been avoided had it not been for the arrogance of ministry officials.
“Mr Sikumba and Mr Muhanga were warned against ignoring the advice of the Attorney General over the cancellation of the Safari Hunting tender. They were warned not to go head and re-advertise the tender because it was going to end up in litigation…and it was clear from the beginning that government was not going to win the case.
“So here we are, government is going to lose K1 million in costs and K64 million in compensation needlessly,” Mr Mwanza said. And Mr Mwanza has said the ACC should not wait until the UPND is out of government to begin pursuing clear cases of corruption against the current leadership.
Mr Mwanza said if the ACC had concluded their investigations against Mr Muhanga, the High Court judgement should give the commission impetus to arrest and prosecute the Ministry of Tourism Permanent Secretary and Mr Sikumba. He stated that the ACC has been so loud about the alleged corruption of Patriotic Front (PF) leaders and that the Commission should exhibit the same zeal they had on following and arresting leaders in the past government.
He said Zambians shall only take President Hichilema’s fight against corruption seriously if he was going to dismiss some of his erring officers and set an example in his government that he was not condoning corruption.
“If the President is serious about the fight against corruption, let him look at the High Court Judgement on the cancellation of the Safari hunting tender. Let him act on those officers whom the Courts of law have ruled breached the law. And let the ACC move in and summon Mr Sikumba and Mr Muhanga and prosecute them if they believe in fairness. We want to see the same zeal the ACC shows when pursuing alleged corruption from the previous administration,” Mr Mwanza said.
