I did not deal with deputy PS, witness tells court

A STATE witness yesterday testified before the Lusaka Magistrates' Court that he had never dealt directly with former deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Florence Chawela when awarding a contract for the runway at Kasaba Bay Airport to Ng'andu Consulting Limited.

This matter came up yesterday before Magistrate David Simusamba for trial.

Abel Ng'andu, a state witness, said in his 17 years of experience in dealing with ministry, contracts, were only awarded after following the laid down tender procedure.

In this matter, Ms Chawela and three others are alleged to have abused the authority of their offices when they awarded a project management services contract to Ng'andu Consulting Limited without following tender procedures.

Particulars are that Chawela and her former Chief Airworthiness Engineer Patrick Mulimbika abused the authority of their offices when they allegedly awarded and signed a project management services contract of a runway at Kasaba Bay Airport to N’gandu Consulting Limited without following tender procedures, an act that was prejudicial to the interests of the govern- ment on December 31, 2009.

In the second count, it is alleged that Kabalika as director of the Department of Civil Aviation who is facing a charge of abuse of authority of Office committed on August 1, 2009 by signing a variation Order No.1 for the project management services contract between the Ministry of Transport and Communications and N’gandu Consulting Limited without following the procurement procedures. The third accused, Adam Daka, the chief aerodromes officer is facing the same charge as Kabalika.

Ng'andu was testifying in cross examination led by defence lawyer Kelvin Bwalya who said he came to know his client Chawela in court and had never interacted with her before.

He said the contract in question was awarded by the Ministerial Tender Committee (MTC) and not by Chawela alone.

"According to my recollection, this contract was awarded after following all the tender procedures and there was nothing wrong with it," he said.

Another defence lawyer Mr Lubinda Linyama asked the witness if there was anything wrong with the variation order and in his response said procedure was also followed.

The matter was adjourned to today for continued trial.