Witness tells Court that procedure was not followed in the procurement of property in Turkey

This is in a matter where the former Secretary to Treasury Fredson Kango Yamba and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Joseph Malanji are appearing before Honourble Washimanga on charges of Willful failure to follow procedures contrary to section 34 (2) (b) of the Anti-Corruption Act No. 3 of 2012 and Possession of property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime contrary to Section 71(1) of the Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime Act No.19 of 2010 of the Laws of Zambia..
When the matter came up for continued hearing today the 27th February 2023, the prosecution witness Saphira Mutambo Muluti an Auditor from Ministry of Foreign Affairs testified that after meeting the then Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ronald Simwinga, she did a desk review of the Accounts in Turkey and discovered some unusual payments. The witness later travelled to Turkey to conduct an audit at the Mission over the unusual payments of huge sums of money.
The witness told the court that, through the audit, it was discovered that a total of USD$7.5M had been transferred to the Turkey Account from Ministry of Finance. That when she asked for supporting documentation, not all the documents were availed to her as procedure for procurement of property in Turkey was not followed. The witness informed the Court that the Mission’s threshold was below the purchase price of this property as the threshold was K150,000. Therefore, the Mission was supposed to involve the Ministerial Tender Committee based at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not involved.
This witness further informed the Court that the 2021 Budget for Ankara, did not have a budget line for procurement of property. So in the course of the year if the need for purchase of property arose, Ministry of Foreign Affairs was supposed to request Treasury for a Supplementary Budget approval.
The witness informed the court that she raised queries as the unsupported payments would amount to an unconstitutional expenditure. The witness pointed out to the court that as indicated in her Report there was deliberate failure by the Mission to inform the Controlling Officer on the funds that were directly transferred from Ministry of Finance.
The witness produced her Report into court and highlighted the conclusions therein.
The Defence at that point asked for an adjournment of the matter to enable them prepare for cross examination. The matter has since been adjourned to the 6th of March, 2023 for cross examination of this witness.