Chiluba grilled over dodgy deal
2008-03-26 21:27
Lusaka - Members of Zambia's presidential task force on corruption on Wednesday questioned former president Frederick Chiluba in the case of a Canadian company that defrauded the state over a deal to supply it with maize during a drought in the mid 1990s.
Carlington Sales Company was contracted by the government to supply maize in what the investigators now believe was a scam between some government officials and the company.
The company never supplied any maize. The impoverished former British colony was defrauded of some $7.8m in the affair.
Chiluba was president from 1991 to 2001.
Corruption Task Force spokesperson Victor Makayi said the former president had been summoned before the panel since he was at the centre of the deal.
Last year the controversial Chiluba, who has been dogged by allegations of corruption, was found guilty of stealing $46m of Zambian public money by a court in London.
His successor President Levy Mwanawasa has launched a crackdown on corruption. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA