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| National |
| Ex-Foreign Affairs Director faces arrest |
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by
Joseph Langa, 20 January 2007
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07:37:46
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Former Foreign Affairs Director of Finance and Administration Chimwemwe Ngwira, who is on forced leave, faces arrest over approximately K8.2 million he is alleged to have collected from Libya and Paris Embassies when the two missions were closed in 2005.
Ngwira, who was sent on leave pending investigations, is alleged to have failed to remit to government, 39,000 Euros (K7,215,000) and US $7,000 (K987,000) he collected from Libya and Paris Embassies, respectively.
The Ministry wrote him last December to respond on the matter and refund the money but he has not done so up to now, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Ben Mbewe and Finance and Administration Director MacPhail Magwila.
Mbewe and Magwila said in separate interviews, the matter has been reported to Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) for advice as they are waiting for a response from Ngwira.
The letter, which the Ministry wrote to Ngwira, had no deadline but Magwila said after a reasonable period, the Ministry will use the court of law to recover the money.
Meanwhile, OPC has advised Foreign Affairs to report the matter to law enforcers, mainly the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), as a standard procedure that government follows where there is suspicion that the law was not followed.
Chief Secretary in the OPC, Bright Msaka, confirmed he received a report from Foreign Affairs on the issue and that he has advised them to report Ngwira to law enforcers.
He said the DPP will decide how to handle the matter depending on his assessment of the case, saying facts in the report suggest the law was broken and that is why law enforcers are supposed to be informed about it.
Mbewe, who confirmed that the OPC instructed the Ministry to report the matter to law enforcers, said the facts indicate that Ngwira received the money and that is why he was sent on leave to pave way for investigations.
Efforts to speak to Ngwira proved futile because his two official mobile phone numbers were out of reach and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were not aware of his whereabouts.
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