By DELPHINE ZULU –
THE Lusaka Magistrates’ Court yesterday heard that former permanent secretary for administration at Cabinet Office, Annie Sinyangwe approved a paving contract before procedure was concluded.
David Mulasikwanda, 34, a former Cabinet procurement assistant, testified that the contract to pave the Cabinet car park, awarded to Maoonstone Investment Limited valued at K89,000 000, was wrongly authorised by Sinyangwe because it was not within her threshold.
He said in this instance, the contract was supposed to undergo a normal procedure of approval, soliciting, receipts of bidders, evaluation of bids and the awarding of the contract by the procurement committee.
Sinyangwe, 48, of Lilayi Airstrip area, is charged with failure to comply with the law and procedure relating to procurement for awarding the contract to the named company between January 1 and August 31, 2012.
Mr Mulasikwanda told Magistrate Lameck Mwale that the said contract was already approved by the PS before his office concluded the procedure and only took up the quotations for purposes of normalising it.
He said at that time, the procurement section only had one quotation, with the other one given to them by their superiors, as efforts to get one more, as required by procedure, failed.
In cross examination, he maintained that only two quotations were seen and that he did not know were the Maoonstone Investment Limited quotation came from.
“I did not force anyone to sign the contract, I only saw the approved quotation and my role was to ensure that it was normalised,” he said.
Another witness, Binwell Mwanza, a former director of human resources at Cabinet Office, testified that during one of the meetings, the former PS asked them why they were delaying the paving works when they were aware of the urgency of the project.
“When the contract was awarded, I was uncomfortable because the amount was beyond our threshold. Maximum approval is K50, 000 and I kept the quotations, awaiting further instructions. Later I received an approved quotation from Ms sinyangwe,” he said.
Mr Mwanza said he raised concerns on why there was only one quotation and how competent the preferred company was, but was asked to facilitate works immediately and that Sinyangwe told the procurement committee that the contract was urgent and behind schedule.
He said a local purchase order was taken to his office and was told it had already been approved but the new head of procurement noticed that it was difficult for him to prepare a report to Zambia Public procurement Authority (ZPPA) because procedure was not followed.
Trial continues on July 17.