Mwamona qualified to do works- China Henan representative tells court
By Staff Reporter
A WITNESS has testified in the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court that Mwamona Engineering Technical Services Limited, a company alleged to belong to Chishimba Kambwili, was qualified to be engaged as a subcontractor for the upgrading of the 175 kilometres Mansa-Luwingu road.
Kambwili is in this case jointly charged with his son Mwamba, the company Mwamona,Brano Musonda, senior inspector at Zambia Revenue Authority ( ZRA ) and Mulenga Kapilima, a revenue officer at ZRA are charged with 39 counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretenses and being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime among others, amounting to over K5 million.
Testifying in the case before principal resident magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, chief representative of China Henan International Cooperation Group Limited- Zambia Zhou Xiao Zhan said Mwamona was paid US $842, 000 for the works it did for the upgrading of the Mansa-Luwingu road and township roads in Mansa and Luwingu.
He said it was right for it to be paid and agreed that the road was properly and competently done to the extent that President Edgar Lungu commissioned the project.
Zhou said Mwamona was awarded the contract and was paid the whole amount because China Henan International Cooperation Group Limited was satisfied with the performance of the company on the
project.
He said after analyzing several documents which Mwamona Engineering Technical Services Limited submitted to China Henan international cooperation group limited, it was discovered it had met the criteria needed for a company to be subcontracted for the project.
Zhou however, said in March 2017, he was summoned by the Anti Corruption Commission ( ACC ) at their offices as they wanted information on the Mansa-Luwingu road project and its subcontractor Mwamona.
He said since he was not involved in the management of the project, he had to pull out a file concerning the project where he found the contract for Mansa-Luwingu and other documents of how Mwamona was subcontracted on the project and how it performed.
He said that the employer of the project was the Road Development Agency ( RDA ) while the contractor was China Henan.
Zhou said according to the records, Mwamona was paid US$842,000 for all the eight interim payments claims it made after doing the works.
The works were to design, upgrade and construction of 175 kilometers Mansa-Luwingu road and 30 kilometers of Mansa and Luwingu township roads.
