ZAFFICO not aware of any Senior Govt Officials involved in export of Mukula logs

ZAFFICO not aware of any Senior Govt Officials involved in export of Mukula logs

The Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation Limited (ZAFFICO) says it is not aware of any Senior Government Officials or Civil Servants who are involved in the export of Mukula logs in their individual capacity as the mandate to export illegally harvested and confiscated Mukula logs has been given to ZAFFICO.

ZAFFICO Board Chairperson Professor Jacob Mwitwa has told QTV News in a statement that there is nothing sinister about the 21 trucks that were illegally intercepted in Kafue area as was explained by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence during the Press Briefing held on Saturday 30^th December 2017.

Prof. Mwitwa says in order to prevent the confiscated Mukula logs from going to waste, Government decided to appoint ZAFFICO to export logs on its behalf so that some economic value could be realised from the sale of the logs.

He says it should be observed that ZAFFICO identified China as the market to export Mukula logs as there is currently no known market where Mukula logs are processed other than China.

Professor Mwitwa explains that the revenue being generated from the export of Mukula logs will be utilized within the provisions of the Public Finance Act No. 15 of 2004.

He adds that it is important to note that ZAFFICO is not involved in the harvesting of Mukula trees but only exports Mukula logs that have been confiscated by the Security wings and cleared for export by all the relevant Government institutions such as Zambia Army, Zambia National Service, Zambia Police Service, Forestry Department and Zambia Revenue Authority which institutions are all part of the Central Joint Operations Committee (CJOC) which Government established to address the illegal harvesting and trading in Mukula logs.