. Kunda

By CHILA NAMAIKO –
A DELEGATION from the Ministry of Works and Supply led by Permanent Secretary (PS) Joe Kapembwa was yesterday sent away by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for submitting unsatisfactory responses to the members over the revelation from the latest Auditor General’s Report.
PAC chairperson Howard Kunda and other members observed that Mr Kapembwa’s responses pertaining to some ministry undertakings were not logical.
This followed audit queries in which on March 18, 2016 the ministry awarded a tender to Messers Tlorens Investment Limited to supply, deliver and install 50 air conditioners at Lothian House in Kitwe at a contract sum of K341,551 with a delivery period of 14 days.
The Auditor General’s Report revealed that the contract document did not even specify the unit cost.
As at August the same year, K333,023 was paid towards the contract leaving a balance of K8,528.
According to the report, physical inspections of installed air conditioners at the institution carried out in April this year, revealed that the contractor did not conform to agreed specifications as per contract requirement in that out of 50 of the facilities supplied, only six conformed to the specifications.
Seven of them could not be ascertained due to inadequate information displayed on them. The documents supplied by the supplier did not show the unit cost prices of the facilities delivered.
As a result, the total value of the facilities could not be ascertained.
In his response, Mr Kapembwa said it was regrettable that at the time of implementation, the contractor supplied air conditioners that were different from those specified in the contract.
He said the contractor was informed of the anomaly, but found it difficult to rectify, citing escalation of costs for air conditioners and associated installation costs at the time of execution.
He was, however, at pains to convince the committee members in their follow-up questions with UPND Chavuma Member of Parliament (MP) Victor Lumayi pressing him on why a recommendation for payment to the contractor was made on June 22, 2016 for K134,663.05, but the payment certificate of the amount was made on July 18 the same year.
As the PS responded that discrepancy in the dates was a typographical error, his response attracted more questions, and Mr Kunda had to adjourn the session for five minutes to allow the delegation to put its documents in order.
Mr Kapembwa was taken to task and Mr Kunda later curtailed his submission, saying the committee was not satisfied and would not allow him to proceed because his responses lacked merit.
“We shall not be able to continue with this submission. We shall request that you go back and please come back on December 18, 2017 at 11:30 hours with proper documents to support your submission,” Mr Kunda said.
He directed the PS to come with relevant officers to respond to queries to enable the committee conclude all pending matters.