Fired FQM whistleblower testifies

A Lusaka Magistrates Court yesterday heard how a former Senior Human Resource Operations Officer at First Quantum Mining-FGM- was dismissed after he allegedly reported corrupt practices of some members of staff to Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

This is a case in which 51 year old Augustine Tembo of Solwezi district, sued James Brevery, a manager, Paul Lloyd, a training superintendent, Kalumba Mulenga, security investigator and Isaac Mutumbi, a human resources officer, all employees of the mine.

The matter came up for continued trial before magistrate Alice Walusiku and all the accused persons were present before court.

In a previous hearing, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to eight counts of taking detrimental action against a company human resource officer who reported corrupt activities within the company to the ACC.

When the case came up yesterday, Tembo told the court that despite making an appeal to management over his dismissal, he was not heard.

He testified that he was surprised that during a disciplinary hearing, the report that he had submitted to ACC was given out to everyone in the meeting including the people that were allegedly involved in the corrupt activities in the organisation.

He testified that ACC had assured him that he would be protected and was going to only be identified as a whistle blower which did not happen.

Tembo told the court that he reported the matter after hearing a recording from another member of staff within the human resource department at FQM, Graham Kasonso, in which he purportedly solicited for K2m from Kennedy Moonga.

He said in the same recording, Kasonso allegedly confessed they had received a down payment of K1m.

“Having a reason to believe that a criminal offence had been committed, I proceeded to report the matter in public interest to the ACC in Solwezi,” he said.

Before his dismissal, Tembo was exposed to the entire workforce as the whistleblower who had reported the corruption identified at the company.

“I only went to report as a whistle blower knowing the operation of my place of work that if I reported such an issue within management it would not be considered,” he said.