By Konkomalimba Kapumpe
The Minister’s statement on the floor of the house was shallow, deceptive, contradictory, confused, and lacking in details. He also seemed to lack the acumen to even discuss the topic of fuel. Most MPs, as well, seemed to lack the capacity to understand the topic; theft and corruption. How can an MP say the price fuel by OMC does not affect fuel pump prices? Even the Speaker was shocked by the kalomo MP’s lack of understanding.
If the IMF or World Bank was watching the debate, we may have looked very dull and embarrassing.
Fellow Zambians, let me try to explain this in the simplest terms in relation to the Minister’s statement. The issue is that when the UPND came into power, they had a brilliant idea to reduce the price of fuel by reopening the Tazama pipeline and not using the road to transport fuel (diesel).
To achieve this, the first thing they did was to make the Tazama pipeline usable. The contract was given to Agro Fuel and its partner, Vitol, which was announced to be around $100 million. They were given a second contract to transport the deadstock in the pipeline to Indeni, worth almost another $100 million.
When the pipeline was ready, the former Minister of Energy, Kapala, announced on the floor of Parliament that Agro Fuel and Vitol were single-sourced to supply fuel. This was even confirmed by our very own current Minister, who said that to avoid shortages of fuel in the country. Agro Fuel was costing us $113 per metric ton to transport the fuel for three years.
Now, for the last most three years, Agro Fuel has monopolized (90%) the Tazama pipeline, despite complaints on record by the OMC Association of Zambia, energy experts, and concerned citizens for three years, crying out to allow open access.
Open access would have allowed others to use the pipeline to bring fuel using the Tazama pipeline as well. Ministry of Energy, Agro Fuel and Tazama defeated the very purpose of trying to reduce the fuel price; instead, the prices increased by almost 50%, from K20s to K30. Hence, the accusation of Economic Sabotage, because high fuel prices pushed every good and service up, pushing inflation high and costing us any meaningful economic recovery. Making UPND and President pointed out to be failures.
The IMF intervened by demanding that the government allow open access, which was finally implemented, allowing a competitive tender. This resulted in the cost of transporting reducing by 60%, from $113 to $54 per metric ton. I won’t bore you with the calculations, but this meant that we were losing over $70 million to $90 million per year; that’s 2.5 billion Kwacha per year in EXTRA profits to individual
Even our confused Minister indicated yesterday that before this, players made extreme profits. These were the Minister of Energy, a suspected criminal in the CDF projects, who decided to deceive the nation. He now wants us to start praising him for the open access policy and how the government has reduced fuel prices after being forced by IMF and lossing over 2.5 billion Kwacha per year.
But, ladies and gentlemen, what happened for the past three years? We lost close to 8billion Kwacha in excess to individuals. This can only be corruption or criminal negligence.
Why did they not implement open access but allowed one single player to supply fuel at a high cost, double the amount? Why did it take the IMF’s intervention? It’s like he’s saying, “We have now stopped stealing from fuel; clap for us.”
The Minister was being deceptive by failing to mention the October 4, 2024 agreement between his Ministry and TAZAMA, signed with Agro Fuel, stating that 50% of all fuel pumped into the pipeline will be for Agro Fuel. This means that Agro Fuel will continue to bring fuel into the pipeline to recover their foreign exchange losses of $19 million for the next two years, rendering almost the open access useless.
This means that the ability of the three-month tender winners to offload their 35,000 metric tons of cargo will be greatly compromised. Other OMC companies that have tried to offload cargo in the last almost 3 years when Agro Fuel was “against” it will be able to narrate the difficulties that exist in trying to offload cargo in Dar when Agro Fuel is against it. This was public knowledge.
We must know who ate the 8 billion Kwacha in the last three years and continues to eat from the Government by allowing a single company to profiteer at the expense of the nation. It’s a suspected cartel from State House staff, Solicitor General’s office, TAZAMA, and the Ministry of Energy. The suspected thieves or criminals must be exposed, investigated, and arrested.
It’s simple , it’s either corruption or criminal negligence. Even the confused Minister has not refused that Goverment has not lost money the before open access..So what is Anti corruption commison waiting for ? I know the Anti corruption know the thieves ..Maybe they waiting for the President “okay” to arrests people.
With due respect to the President, i dare the President to say “arrests all those involved in fuel corruption” and you will see the arrests.