By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
FORMER Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) finance director, Regina Mwale has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for authorising the payment of former ZRL chief executive officer (CEO) Clive Chirwa’s accommodation at Fallsway Apartments way beyond his threshold.
Magistrate Obister Musukwa has since advised ZRL to pursue the recovering of the K289,128.84 from Professor Chirwa through a civil matter.
The payment of K72,282,210 per month which Mwale authorised to pay for the two months of Prof Chirwa’s accommodation was against the directive of the ZRL board as it was above the former CEO’s entitlement of K28,000 housing allowance per month which was 20 per cent of his salary.
Mr Musukwa said when he slapped a custodial but simple imprisonment against Ms Mwale yesterday that the move was to deter other would-be offenders.

. Prof Chirwa

Prof Chirwa who was jointly charged with Mwale and was facing two counts of abuse of authority and failure to disclose interest was on Monday, however, acquitted of the charges.
Mr Musukwa acquitted Prof Chirwa because he did not find evidence linking him to having instructed management at ZRL to pay for his accommodation at Fallsway Apartments.
He said that although Mwale was a first offender who was entitled to leniency and had pleaded health challenges of high blood pressure and diabetes in the absence of documentary medical ?evidence, there was nothing the court could do.
Mwale had through her lawyer Mulilo Kabesha pleaded for leniency as she was a first offender, single mother who did not have a personal gain out of the money.
She pleaded with the court to allow her reimburse the K144,000, less than what Prof Chirwa was entitled as housing allowance so that she could not be sent to prison.
Mr Kabesha said as rightly observed by the court, that there was hostility between the ZRL’s Mark Chona-led board and Prof Chirwa (CEO).
“Your honour these were two elephants fighting and the convict was the grass. The convict found herself in crossfire of that hostility,” Mr Kabesha said.
But Mr Musukwa said he could not order Mwale to reimburse the money because the punishment would be too harsh as she did not personally benefit from the money.
“In order to deter other offenders, custodial sentence is the best,” Mr Musukwa said.
Mr Musukwa sentenced Mwale to 18 months in each of the two counts but the sentences would run concurrently.
The jail term is effective from Monday when Mwale was convicted.
Mr Kabesha indicated that his client would appeal to the high court against the conviction and sentence.
Mwale between November 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012 authorised payment of K289,128.84 to Fallsway Apartments of Lusaka for accommodation for the benefit of Prof Chirwa without following laid down procedures.