. Wina

By JAMES KUNDA –
GOVERNMENT auditors will be dispatched to ascertain reports of financial irregularities at National Savings and Credit Bank (NATSAVE), Vice-President and National Planning Minister Inonge Wina has said.
Ms Wina said that auditors would complement the ongoing works by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which moved in following reports of mismanagement that emanated at the institution recently.
She said this in Parliament yesterday through Deputy Minister in her office Lawrence Sichalwe, who was responding to Mpongwe PF Member of Parliament (MP) Gabriel Namulambe.
Mr Namulambe wanted to know if the Government was aware of financial irregularities at NATSAVE and what measures were being undertaken to secure the savings of customers to avert a recurrence of events that led to the closure of Lima Bank.
“The auditors will verify the reports of alleged irregularities at NATSAVE and this will coincide with another probe following the fire that gutted the institution,” Mr Sichalwe said.
Mr Sichalwe’s counterpart Bwalya Chungu told the House in responding to another question by Mr Namulambe that Mopani Copper Mines had retrenched 2,989 workers between January 1 and November 20 this year.
Mr Chungu said the job losses were precipitated by the prevailing global economic crunch of which the Government had regretted the negative impact on the economy.
The House also heard that Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) had commenced the process of returning the arsenic copper concentrates imported from Chile to the country of origin.
Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Deputy Minister Davies Mwango said the mining firm had so far removed 1,529 tonnes of the commodity out of the country.
Mr Mwango was responding to a question raised on the matter by Mr Namulambe.
“The remaining 441 tonnes of the concentrate is expected to be removed by the 10th of this month, which was the revised deadline given to the firm after it requested for an extension in view of other financial obligations.
Meanwhile, Transport and Communications Minister Kapembwa Simbao told the House that the Government last year spent K150 million to dredge canals countrywide.
Mr Simbao said in a ministerial statement that the Treasury had allocated an additional US$50 million to continue on the trajectory of providing critical services to wetlands and lakes.