Witness Testifies In Siliya’s Abuse Case

A witness yesterday told the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court that she was surprised that Dora Siliya responded to a letter from Selex in which the company was offering to repair the radar for free at Lusaka International Airport.
This is in a case where Siliya, the former transport and communications minister, is in court for abuse of authority of office.
Testifying in the case, Mukuka Zimba, who worked as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Communication, told Lusaka chief resident magistrate Joshua Banda that Dr Eustern Mambwe as the permanent secretary should have taken the lead to communicate with Selex with the guidance of Siliya.
Zimba said since the matter had reached a technical stage, Siliya was not expected to take the lead unless it was at policy level.
She said after she noted that Siliya was communicating with the company, she convened a meeting with technocrats to get an update on the status of the obsolete radar where she raised concerns over some work which had been done.
Zimba said the company needed to do some more works.
She said she also raised the issue of training because the obsolete equipment which was installed earlier lacked the training component.
Zimba said without the training component, the problems which were encountered with the obsolete radar would still occur.
And Zimba said it was difficult for her to get updates on issues of repair to the radar because Siliya was personally keeping the files.
She said there was total confusion at the ministry when Siliya took over as minister.
Zimba said the confusion made it difficult for her to know what was going on regarding the issue of the radar system.
In this case, Siliya is in the first count alleged to have directed the cancellation of a duly awarded tender for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of the Zambia Air Traffic Management Surveillance Radar System to Thales Air System SA.
She is in the second count alleged to have accepted a free offer from Selex Sistemi Integrati S.P.A for the repair of a radar head at the then Lusaka International Airport without following procedure.

Posted by Kunda on July 5, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.