The UPND Administration is acting very smartly and transparently on the MCM-Delta Deal, so says Minister of Mines, Hon Kabuswe.
It’s seriously appalling and mind boggling to have a cabinet minister with this level of negative intelligence.
It’s very unfortunate that our minister of mines is living in falsehood, I pray that he comes out of falsehood as quickly as reasonably possible for him to realize that whatever they are beholding to be smart is dirty and filth. The transparency that they are claiming, is seriously obscured and skewed.
I don’t blame him in entirety, but I blame the entire UPND Leadership. One would have thought these this party had qualified people and brainboxes within its rank and file alas .. it’s just comprised of seemingly street boys. If UPND had qualified people the president should have changed his entire cabinet and put in performers who should have moved this country forward in line with their motto of “Zambia Forward”.
The Hon. Mines Minister should keep in his mind that as they are dribbling themselves and falsely convincing themselves that they are smart, there are some patriots like me who have never been a political cadre, but are supporters of progressive ideas, condemn and even ready to short down anything unprogressive no matter the degree of danger from anyone holding power.
The Honorable minister of mines should remember the following:
1. Someone or a firm got hired @ a fee of not less than US Dollars 10million to run a tender to dispose of or sell the 51% shares of the people of the Government of the Republic of Zambia in MCM through our ZCCM-IH and this is not a property of the ruling party UPND, that’s point number one.
2. Tenders have rules and regulations as contained in Zambia Public Procurement Act. These rules and regulations are oftentimes manipulated by politicians to facilitate their evil, fraudulent schemes and intentions in order to get away with things.
i. Abuse of authority of office, stem from here. This is the politicians’ playing field for those who taste the Corridors of Power.
ii. It’s because of what transpires from here that political parties and politicians fight to be in government forever, at all cost for fear of going to prison.
iii. Most by-elections stem from here, political parties want to increase their numbers in parliament so that they can pass bills and laws which will favor them and technically prevent their way to jail as most of the times they stand to be potential clients of Mwembeshi and Mukobeko prisons
iv. It’s because of what happens from here, that killings and kidnapping might occur to induce by-elections so that they can pass oppressive laws with any struggle
v. It’s what transpires from here and when the law is abrogated we end up with all sorts injustices, injuries and casualties for those in power to defend their position by force or create a public perception that every thing is fine and it’s in the best interest of our nation and it’s general public.
3. A tender can either be;
a. Open (Bidding) Tender. (National or International) or both for every Jim and Jack to participate
b. Limited Bidding, where selected participants are shortlisted for reasons that procuring agencies may be able to substantiate within the confines of the law of the land or as they law may permit.
It’s with in this sphere the following are falling:
i. Selective Bidding.
This is where Bidders who have done business with Government and their performance proven to be exceptionally well and outstanding are selected from the database, the number should not be less than three (3) to get the best evaluated bidder.
(This is an open cheque for corruption but covered by the law in order to shield someone from undue competition) But, valid Reasons are provided for this process to take place.
ii. Single Source Direct Bidding.
(The most abused process in the procurement system) this the bidder compete with no one other than himself. Ideally, this process is supposed to be used to a successful bidder who had challenges to deliver the services due to unforeseen circumstances and the Client either played a role in that failure or Client acknowledged the technicality of the problem, it proves to be beyond 25% Contract Variation threshold. Since contract rate don’t change it becomes prudent for the Contract to be terminated and the same bidder be single sourced and be direct bided to change the rates and arrive at a normal value. However, this is Politicians’ open cash transfer and friends and relatives are oftentimes found to be players, even when they have never done even any small business with Government. But you find them to be single sourced and direct bided.
4. A tender always comprise of the following:
a.-– The Tender Publication date
There ought to be a Tender Publication date and period it supposed to run
b.– The Tender Submission Deadline
Submission Deadline comprising of specific time, hour, minute date, date, month and year.
– Tenders close as per stipulated time and any extension without informing all bidders in ink invalidates the tender
– Any acceptance of the bid after tender submission deadline is illegal
– Bids are Opened in presence of all bidders and immediately the tender closes all bidders’ bid prices are announced and published and entered into the register. All participants are notified through email as up date measure.
– The reason for doing the above is to make the matter transparent, in an event that the winner turns out to be an entity which never participated in the tender. Participants will thus have a legal backing to challenge the decision.
– After the evaluation process, the results are published in the public media and participants are written to formally, the publication should run for 10 working days, giving chance to any one amongst the Bidders who might be aggrieved to write to the Client with in 10 days after that the award is done if that happened to be no one challenging the results. This a transparent tender.
c. – Participation Fees
Stating the amount or no participation fees . Participation Fees are to deter every Jim and Jack to jump on the bandwagon and make the evaluation process cumbersome through increased number of participants
d.–The Tender Document
The Tender Document itself constituting a legal document between the Bidder and the Client, stating all Terms and Conditions for both parties. This is a public document in our case of MCM . It embodies even all rules and regulations to be observed during and after the tender process. Qualifications and Evaluation Criteria are all contained here in.
e.– The Tender Advert
There should be an advert published in public print media, electronic and TV since it quasi government, it should be on ZPPA e-procurement platform
If the tender is not advertised most of the time there’s some vested interest by someone in authority
5. Tender General and Specific Terms and Conditions
In any tender there are General and Specific Terms and Conditions, always. They ere there for a purpose and it is a legal mandate that they are followed and complied with to the latter.
a. – Collusion
b. – Conflict of interest
c. – The Power of Attorney
d. – The Litigation Status
F – Bid Security
i. – Financial Status and capacity to undertake the execution of the tender.
ii. – Proven track record in similar matters
iii. At least not less than three (3) traceable references
iv. Is participating entity not sanctioned by the United Nations?
6. The Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation criteria is always contained in the general and special conditions of the contract of the bidding document. What I have started in Clause 5 . a – I summarizes this. If a bidder lacks anything 5. a – I above then that bidder has failed and is thrown out. If all bidders fail in any of the above, they have fallen off and the tender is non responsive. It should be tendered.
7. The Evaluation Report
There’s always an evaluation report which is submitted to the tender committee Chairman for approval and Permanent Secretary of a particular ministry is a tender committee Chairman. Here we have a complex matter which is drawing in Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Mines.
Having said what I have tabulated above, I will personally stick to my earlier view that this is
1. A highest scam in our land, probably since independence.
2. This is daylight robbery of our public assets
3. The is filthy and a stench of corruption.
4. It’s shrouded in extreme secrecy to conceal the dirt involved in this fraudulent transaction.
5. It’s a skewed, mala transaction which has robbed Zambians of their dreams, future hope of a self sufficiency and prosperity.
6. The Patriotic Front did a tremendous job to get the mine from Glencoe. All what remained was to look for a US$500 Million that the CEO of MCM, Mr. Charles Sakanya had requested and this money was readily available with in our confines as it demonstrated by the amount given to MicroOcean on the Ndola-Lusaka Dual Carriage Way and US$400. Million Dollars Maamba Collieries Ltd which has even changed its name to Maamba Energy Ltd, using our own money.
7. I cannot believe the mines ministers claims of transparency. This is plain crooked smart dribbling of Zambians, but for a season.
8. I will only change my perception of this deal of MCM– Delta if the following is published by the Ministry of Mines and the Ministers address to parliament makes available these documents:
a. Advert for the tender which led to our 51% Shareholding going with no money changing hands
b. The Tender Document they floated for 51% shareholding disposal.
c. The Tender Document for selection of the procurement agent for our mines and the reason which lead to that.
d. The process and method used to identify this sales agent.
e. The evaluation report for the tender which was used to select the sales agencies
f. Terms and conditions governing the conducting of the sale process.
g. The evaluation report on our 51% shareholding disposal
The publication of the Best evaluated bidder in bother.