Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Peter Sinkamba
The European Union Delegation is this Thursday scheduled to meet opposition green party leader peter Sinkamba to discuss various governance issues affecting the country among them the controversial procurement of 42 fire engine trucks from Spain at the cost of us$42 million.
Party President Peter Sinkamba says he wrote to the president of the European partners against corruption and the European contact-point network against corruption (EPAC/EACN) through the secretariat hosted by Austrian federal bureau of anti-corruption to seek assistance from the network to establish whether or not there was active or passive corruption in respect of procurement of 42 fire engine trucks from Spain at the cost of us$42million.
Mr. Sinkamba says the trucks were procured through grand view international limited, a Zambian company.
He says the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for Scania automobiles is Scania AB which is based in Sweden.
Mr. Sinkamba says most stakeholders suspect there was an act of active or passive corruption in this transaction even though government has defended the controversial procurement arguing it received value for money.
The Green Party Leader suspects that the transaction is irregular in many respects, including non-compliance with EU rules.
Mr. Sinkamba says the possibility of money laundering or illicit financial flows which could negatively impact on EU financial interests and thereby contravene article 1 of council regulation 2988/95.
He believes that the EU has a responsibility of preventing the use of the EU financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorism financing.