THEY’LL GO TO JAIL
…Binwell warns those behind controversial PPP road projects will face prison when power shifts
By George Zulu
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) government is running a dangerous criminal cartel, which is siphoning money from Zambians through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) road construction projects, Nkana member of Parliament Binwell Mpundu has said.
Speaking in an interview with The Mast yesterday, Mpundu who is also leader of the Movement for Good Governance (MGG) locally known as Ichabaiche, warned that those involved in the scheme would eventually face jail for stealing from the Zambian people through the PPP projects.
“And I want to warn the UPND. The government will change either in August or whichever year, government is going to change. All these characters who are involved in this PPP, they will go to jail for as long as I am living. They will go to jail. There will be no mercy for criminals like these who are contracting this project. That you must tell them,” Mpundu warned.
He said corruption and mismanagement of public funds under the UPND administration had deprived Zambians of quality services.
Mpundu said citizens were now bearing the cost of substandard roadworks instead of benefiting from real development.
He described the situation in the road construction sector as daylight robbery.
“I have concluded in my own words that there’s daylight robbery happening on this PPP project and that now is that there are shoddy works that are being done. If you go to the Luanshya-Masangano road, the Masangano Road, within a year they’ve started patching the road. Now, from whichever engineering point you are speaking from, there’s no way a road can be patched within a year of being used,” he said.
Mpundu said the situation was the same on the Sakania-Ndola road, which just three weeks after its commissioning, had already developed potholes.
“The Sakania-Ndola road is being patched or has developed cracks in less than a month of it being open to the public. The Chingola-Kasumbalesa road has given way, it has given up on life within two years of it being operational,” Mpundu said.
Mpundu said there was no way any government could forgive such a criminal enterprise, which was duping Zambians in such a manner.
“There will be no mercy for people who are stealing from the general public. And they will go to jail. It’s a matter of one day. And I always say that time settles all matters. They may look to be clever, they may think they are powerful, but there’s a day of reckoning coming when they’ll be able to answer for these atrocities they are committing against the Zambian people,” he said.
Mpundu said it was sad that those in leadership were colluding with individuals in the private sector and investors to steal from Zambians.
“This, I will tell you, is the highest form of criminality on the part of the UPND government. They are actually stealing in the name of PPPs, they are colluding with these same consortiums to defraud the citizens of their money. Because whatever, whichever way you want to look at it, this is our money, it is the Zambian people that are going to pay for these projects through the payments they’ll be making on those tokens,” Mpundu said.
He said what was more troubling was that the stolen funds were borrowed money meant for infrastructure development, which Zambians would eventually have to repay through concessions.
“So, contrary to their thinking, contrary to their assertions that these are not borrowed funds. Yes, they are not borrowed, but eventually, it is the citizens who are going to pay. And the citizens cannot be made to pay for the criminality that we are now witnessing on those PPP projects,” he said.
Mpundu said some of the projects that needed to be reviewed were the Lusaka-Ndola road, the Ndola-Sakania, Chingola and Chililabombwe roads.
He said it was sad that despite government entering into the multi-million-dollar projects, no contract had been made public for scrutiny.
“Has anyone of you been able to access these contractual documents? We are talking about the PPP projects for Ndola, Lusaka, Chingola, Chililabombwe, and Sakania -Ndola road. None of these documents can be accessed by the public. Now, whether it is a contractor using their resources, it is government entering into a contractual obligation with a foreign entity, or with whichever entity, and the public needs to know,” he said.
He said sadly, none of the projects were taken to Parliament for approval.
“In case of Ndola and Lusaka, we already have public infrastructure there. The targets that were built by public money, that is why we were insisting that such a project should have gone to Parliament for approval because we basically have been surrendering our public infrastructure to collecting or rather revenue collecting points,” he said.
On Saturday, Copperbelt Minister Elisha Matambo admitted that the government had been cheated through poor workmanship by the contractor engaged to work on the multi-million-dollar Ndola-Sakania PPP project.
“Iyi yena bali tu gong’a [on this project we were shortchanged or cheated.] So, even if I’m not an engineer, my brother, you said these patches were small and you’ve put a big one. First of all, we shouldn’t expect patches on a road which is brand new,” Mr Matambo said.
