Former Secretary Arrested For Corruption Involving Over $33 Million

In another victory in the fight against corruption, the New Dawn government has authorised the arrest of former Secretary to the Treasury, Fredson Yamba, over corrupt practices involving over US$33 million.

 The scandal occurred when Mr Yamba did not follow correct legal procedures when he authorised an advance payment of US$ 33,750,000 to China Energy Engineering Group, Hunan Electric Power Design Institute Co. Ltd, in 2018. The funds were allocated for the construction of FTJ Chiluba University in Mansa and Kasama under the Ministry of Higher Education. However, despite the large donation of funds, there has been no construction of a university to date.

 The former Secretary was arrested and charged with one account of willful failure to comply with applicable law and procedure relating to procurement contrary to Section 34 (2) (b) of the Anti-Corruption Act No. 3 of 2012.

 Additionally, Joseph Phiri, an architect at the Ministry of Higher Education was also arrested over this. He was charged under one account of fraudulent facilitation of payment contrary to section 34 (2) (a) as reading together with section 40 (2) of the Anti-Corruption Act No.3 of 2012.

 Mr Phiri was project manager and architect of the FTJ Chiluba University and made attempts to facilitate the payment to the China Energy Engineering Group by signing and issuing an Interim Payment Certificate for goods that were due to be supplied, but in fact, were not.

The goods were valued at US$ 29,186,169.04 with an inflated sum of US$ 7,578,772.41.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is also pursuing Joseph Ngulube, a Quantity Surveyor at the Minister of High Education, in relation to the same scandal.

Mr Phiri has appeared in court and has been granted bail, Mr Yamba is expected to appear in court soon.

The news reflects the next steps in the New Dawn government’s crackdown on corruption within Zambia. So far, the government has made numerous arrests including several in relation to the Mukula and HoneyBee scandals, with funds from these scandals being reallocated to over 2,000 university bursaries.