President has not received FIC report-Chanda
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu will not be pushed to act on the report released by the ¿nanFial intelligenFe &entUe ),& as he has not Ueceived any submission from the centre, says Presidential 3Uess $iG $mos &hanGa
Mr Chanda said the President cannot act on matter that has not been submitted to him nor where investigated law enforcement agencies have not advised whether there was a prime facie case or not and in a matter.
Mr Chanda said “the President was unware of any tax evasions, tax frauds and the tax evasion income low of 4.5 billion, reported in the FIC report to the media by the centre.”
He however, said that it was unfair for the civil society organizations (CSO’s) to try and press President Lungu to act on the FIC report, which was never submitted by any agency nor the FIC itself.
“It is unfair that civil society organizations are trying to push the president to act on a report, that was never submitted to him, and which like any other Zambian citizen he only saw on social media and later in newspapers,” Mr Chanda said. He was speaking shortly after the departure of President Lungu for a Private visit to Kenya at the Kenneth Kaunda International airport.
He said CSO’s should instead put to task the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) whether the 4.5 billion loss did occur or not.
“As the enforcement agency responsible for dealing with tax evasion ZRA must be responsible for a loss of such magnitude in the FIC report must be put to task. CSO’s must put that demand on ZRA whether such loss had occurred.”
He said if the report had been submitted to the President, then he would be the first to be concerned, but he did not even have a report from the Ministry of Finance in regard to the financial report.
“But that President Lungu was unaware of any police report on the alleged fraud on any citizen in the private sector or Government institution, as the amount reported did not even appear in the auditor general’s report nor was it reported by any agency or the FIC itself.” he said.