Ndola — THE parliamentary watchdog committee on public accounts (PAC) has summoned Finance and National Planning Minister, Ng'andu Magande and Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Governor, Caleb Fundanga, to appear before it over alleged fake K15 billion funding slips for road projects at the Ministry of Works and Supply.

This was after Works and Supply Permanent Secretary, Bizwayo Nkunika, yesterday in Lusaka denied receiving K1.2 billion for the Nakonde-Malawi border road commonly known as Nakonde-Kanyala as stated in the 2005 Auditor-General's report.

Colonel Nkunika, in his submissions, said what was being perceived as funding by the Auditor-General was a wrong fraudulent funding slip number 0328 dated May 12, 2004 which was presented by the then chief accountant.

He said the Auditor-General's office got the false funding deposit slip number 0328 at the ministry of Finance, reflecting K15 billion for 35 projects on roads as opposed to what he termed as genuine funding slip number 328 from his ministry, which had 19 projects with the same amount though the Nakonde-Kanyala road was not included in the funding.

"When my ministry became aware that the ministry of Finance had produced two funding slips over the same amount, the chief accountant visited the BoZ to check on funding," he said.

Printed original bank statements obtained at the BoZ by the chief accountant confirmed that funding reference number 328 dated May 12, 2004 with a sum of K15,094,529,215 was credited on May 13, 2004 to the ministry of Works and Supply account number 001-37-23-00064-3 by BoZ.

But the original bank statements from the BoZ for the period January to August 2004, revealed funding number 0328 with the sum of K15,094,529,215 was not credited to the ministry of Works and Supply account by the BoZ.

"In the light of transparency and accountability and in order to comply with good governance practices, my ministry demands that the Auditor-General submits to PAC the name of the accountant under my ministry, who was found with K60 million as part of the K1.2 billion which was believed to be funded but defrauded," Col Nkunika said.

He said the allegations by the Auditor-General were strong and needed to be substantiated by facts so that the ministry's integrity was preserved and confidence of both potential and existing donors in the road sector was retained.

But Auditor-General, Anna Chifungula, whose contribution was being interjected by the Permanent Secretary, maintained that her office reported actual facts on the ground because the funding was gotten from the ministry of Finance.

"The Permanent Secretary is saying funding is fake when roads were reflecting in the yellow book and instead, what he is calling as genuine slip has different roads though the same amount of K15 billion was released by the ministry of Finance," she said.

It was at this stage that the committee demanded that Mr Magande and Dr Fundanga be summoned before it to clarify the discrepancies.

At this stage, Mr Milupi and Mbabala MP, Emmanuel Hachipuka, (UPND) wondered where the ministry got the authority to spend the K15 billion on roads not budgeted for as shown in the yellow book.

Col Nkunika said the diversion of funds was prudent management because the funds were going to the road sector, but the committee said it was not satisfied with the answers hence, the summoning of Mr Magande and Dr Fundanga.

On Chipata-Lundazi road, Choma-Chitongo in Southern Province and Mongu-Kalabo road in Western Province, Mr Milipi said Government was losing more money to contractors in delayed interests.