New Energy Minister, Fortune Chasi, says Wicknell Chivayo will still have to pay back the $5 million even if he was acquitted. "O...
New Energy Minister, Fortune Chasi, says Wicknell Chivayo
will still have to pay back the $5 million even if he was acquitted.
"On the Chivayo case, I have no intention to abdicate the
responsibility I have been given by the nation in requiring that Zesa must
receive value for money.
I am simply demanding compliance with the provisions of the
Public Finance Management Act, which cautions against recklessness with public
property and funds.
It would be highly irresponsible of me were I to look
askance in the face of a scandal of monumental volumes such as this.
As minister of Energy, I am there to protect and further
the public interest in all respects.
Zesa is owed $1,2 billion and that money must be recovered.
Zesa imports very expensive power. That $5 million is a lot of money.
It’s either I see the project having been enacted in
accordance with the contract or the money itself! I expect that those at Zesa
who are complicit in this saga ensure that he pays.
Acquittal on a criminal matter is no bar to civil
liability. This type of profligacy will never happen again in this industry as
long as I am superintending over it.
The public is right to be angry over this and I’m obviously
on their side.
The board must tell me what they have done about this
matter. I must, on behalf of the public, be satisfied that sufficient and
urgent action is being taken.
In the absence of that, a serious collision is in the
offing. It is improper to ask for tariff hikes in the presence of
poor and porous procurement systems, poor risk management and recklessness with
public funds.
All these add to the cost build-up with which the public is
then lumbered with," he told the Standard.
COMMENTS