Readers of today's POST were no doubt shocked to read that Dora Siliya not know what the Attorney General meant when he said
"For all the reasons I have given, I advise that the signed MoU be taken as a nullity...".
It seems like she could not understand this key sentence because of the word "nullity".
I do not expect the Hon. Minister to be a walking dictionary but she has at her disposal thousands of civil servants at the ministry and one of them should know the meaning of this word. If that was not possible, a trip to the nearest bookshop to purchase a dictionary would have saved us from the mess we find ourselves in. Alternatively the Hon. Minister should have just phoned the AG's chambers and asked for a clarification. She can't surely say she had no credit on her phone because we pay her bills.
BUT we are not about to let her off the hook just because the entire Ministry of Communication does not know the meaning of the word "nullity". This is because it is a well established fact in law that ignorance can not be offered as a basis for a defence.
BUT we are not about to let her off the hook just because the entire Ministry of Communication does not know the meaning of the word "nullity". This is because it is a well established fact in law that ignorance can not be offered as a basis for a defence.
The whole thing is mind boggling. Here we have a Minister about to sign a MoU worth millions of dollars and she does not bother to understand the opinion of the Chief legal advisor to GRZ?
On why the contract was awarded to RP Capital ...
Earlier, Siliya told the tribunal that the proposal by RP Capital to valuate Zamtel's assets was very impressive.
Siliya said she signed the MoU with RP Capital after she was satisfied that their proposal was in line with her ministry's agenda on the future of Zamtel.
Asked by Mutale to outline the credentials that RP Capital gave to merit the selection as the valuator of Zamtel's assets, Siliya said the company had done a lot of work within the region.
Siliya said several companies expressed interest to undertake the Zamtel valuation exercise but that RP Capital was the only company that talked about the valuation of Zamtel while others wanted an outright purchase of the company.
"What credentials did they produce as being capable or qualified to do that exercise?" Mutale asked Siliya and she responded: "They told us that they did a lot of work in the region...they referred to some work they were doing in South Africa and Congo DR."
When further asked to elaborate on the works, Siliya said the company was doing some business re-engineering.
But Mutale said that the job was not the same as valuation and he told Siliya that she had not been helpful to the tribunal in the aspect of fleshing out the credentials that prompted her ministry to settle for RP Capital to valuate Zamtel's assets.
"What credentials did they produce as being capable or qualified to do that exercise?" Mutale asked Siliya and she responded: "They told us that they did a lot of work in the region...they referred to some work they were doing in South Africa and Congo DR."
When further asked to elaborate on the works, Siliya said the company was doing some business re-engineering.
But Mutale said that the job was not the same as valuation and he told Siliya that she had not been helpful to the tribunal in the aspect of fleshing out the credentials that prompted her ministry to settle for RP Capital to valuate Zamtel's assets.
This was an opportunity for the Minister to shut her doubters by providing concrete reasons why she felt RP Capital were best placed to undertake the valuation but all we got was hogwash.
The President should stop this tribunal at once because it is a waste of money and time. We are wasting the judges' time when they could be sorting out the huge backlog of cases at the High Court. Enough evidence has been produced to convict the Hon. Minister without doubt.
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3 comments:
I am one of those who were surprised that Dora could utter such nonsense in court. I was also surprised at how she brought Maureen Mwanawasa in the picture. What was the relevance of that to her case? The woman is really in a tight corner and clutching at straw. The last kicks of a desperate dying horse.
Lol! May I have advise the Hon. Communications Minister that she could even Google the definition of the word on her mobile, if she so wished.
And the Hon. Minister would be pleased to learn that in the near future she could even text question to a number, and get the answer back via text!
All she needs to do, as Communications Minister, is to allow these services.
One of the shocking issues to have come out of the tribunal is how laid back these officials are. Today Dora is quoted as saying she actually did not read the version of the MoU she signed. You also have a situation where the Italian company goes to the Minister's office to complain that they can't find the address to submit the tender application. I smell something here!
This is the calibre of people we get as a result of poor checks and balances.
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