Witness tells court Mwamona was nominated by RDA

By Staff Reporter
A WITNESS yesterday testified that Mwamona Engineering Technical Services Limited was nominated by the Road Development Agency as a subcontractor to conduct works on the Mansa-Luwingu road.
This evidence was heard in a case in which former Roan member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili is jointly charged with his son Mwamba and two Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) employees Brano Musonda,
a senior inspector and Mulenga Kapilima.
The accused are charged with 39 counts of being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime, preparing a false document, obtaining pecuniary advantage and uttering a false document involving over K5 million.
Testifying in the case before principal resident magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, George Manyele, a construction and rehabilitation director at RDA said Mwamona was nominated by RDA as a subcontractor to work on the Mansa-Luwingu.
He explained that RDA has two types of sub-contracts namely domestic sub-contracting and nominated sub-contracting.
Manyele said  under domestic sub-contracting, the main contractor selects a contractor to work with while under nominated sub-contracting, the employer in this case RDA, nominates a sub contractor to which the main contractor will work with.
He however, said the main contractor was responsible for the works done by the sub contractor.
Manyele said Mwamona Engineering Technical Services Limited was nominated by RDA as a subcontractor.
And testifying in cross examination led by Kambwili’s lawyers Keith Mweemba and Gilbert Phiri,  Manyele explained that Mwamona was selected by RDA which falls under nominated  subcontractor.
He said RDA followed the modalities and guidelines that it usually follows during sub-contracting when it sub contracted Kambwili’s company Mwamona Engineering and Technical Services Limited.
Manyele said nomination was based on the competence and capacity of a sub contractor.
The witness said China Henan international Cooperation Group Limited was responsible for the works on the Mansa-Luwingu road.
Manyele added that RDA had no problem with China Henan as the works were done in a competent manner and workers were entitled to payments because the works were delivered  competently.
Hearing continues on August 30.