SINGLE-SOURCING OF FUEL SCANDAL WON’T DIE - LUBINDA
THE single-sourcing of petroleum products saga by the UPND government is exemplification of the new dawn administration grand procurement thieving,” Given Lubinda has said.
And Mr Lubinda has warned that all the corruption scandals being committed by the UPND leadership in all sectors, including energy, agriculture and health shall be laid bare towards and especially in and soon after the 2026 general elections.
Mr Lubinda, the Patriotic Front (PF) vice president says revelations by the Auditor General about the scandals in the procurement of oil was but a start of more revelations to follow as those in Government had embarked on a looting spree unrestrained.
For the Auditor General to reveal the frightening truth that under the watch of President Hakainde Hichilema, who only two years ago accused the then government of syphoning K3 out of the then K15 per litre of fuel due to middlemen in the procurement system tells of the calibre of the people governing Zambia, particularly President Hichilema who is the principal accuser,” Mr Lubinda said.
“Indeed a question can be asked and an assumption can be made that if K3 was being syphoned from the K15 per liter, then surely more than K15 is being syphoned from the current K36 per litre. The K 10 is going to the single sourced company as the AG indicated. Undoubtedly the rest is going to the ones who facilitated the obnoxious and illegal single sourcing,” he said.
Mr Lubinda explained that there were many experienced players in the energy sector who were being given even a little chance to prove themselves because the procurement of oil had been marred by grand corruption through single-sourcing.
He said the UPND had corruptly been procuring petroleum products through their sole preferred supplier to the exclusion of other players who for many decades had been supplying fuel.
“All this in preference for one individual. The foolish question to ask would be ‘why this particular individual?’ Foolish because it is a well-known fact that the individual has been funding the ruling party for many of its opposition years! He is ‘correct’ in the books of the ruler,” Mr Lubinda said.