Parly to grill its staff members over laptops tender scandal
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda has revealed that Parliament staff involved in the laptops and desktop procurement scandal will appear before the Public Accounts to explain themselves.
Parliament was last week exposed for awarding laptops and desktop tender to Blinart Investment and Mid-End Computers and Hardware at inflated prices.
The laptops were quoted at US$9 264.48 each, while desktops were at US$3 076.61 each.
According to a memo from the Ministry of Finance, the tender had 173 laptops and 79 desktops.
While the tenders are said to have been cancelled, Parliament wants the responsible officials interrogated.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda confirmed that the responsible people will appear before the Public Accounts Committee.
‘’the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee has written to say that the responsible officials must appear before the Public Accounts Committee. That process will proceed, and only after the interrogation of the Public Accounts Committee will they decide whether there will be a need for a forensic audit or not.
‘’Also, it has to be taken into account what the Auditor General has said about the accounts of the Committee since 2013. If there are issues that were raised and they were not attended to, those can be part of the interrogation by the Public Accounts Committee.
‘’So, in terms of procedure, we will proceed that way.
‘’Also, sometimes do not be converts of social media. I have described the process and that will prevail accordingly,’’ he said.
Will Chokuda be grilled over laptops?
It is not yet clear whether the Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda will be among those that will be grilled over the issues.
Chokuda recently wrote a press release indicating that he ordered the cancellation of the tender after the exorbitant prices were flagged out.
The scandal has brought Parliament under the spotlight as it is charged with duties of playing an oversight role on the government, including spending.
Parliament is also charged with authorizing government spending as it has the final authority on the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Corruption has been identified as the biggest stumbling to economic revival and has weighed heavily on the second republic.
Parly to grill its staff members over laptops tender scandal
