Thursday, March 15, 2007

Finance Bank says sorry to Levy

Finance Bank says sorry to Levy
By Amos Malupenga
Thursday March 15, 2007 [02:00]

Finance Bank has unreservedly apologised to President Levy Mwanawasa for the leakage of his personal account. Finance Bank managing director Dick King yesterday said opposition Patriotic Front president Michael Sata's allegations of corruption and money laundering against President Mwanawasa's principal private secretary Alfred Chipoya were false, regrettable and unfortunate. President Mwanawasa, through his special assistant for legal affairs Darlington Mwape, on Monday demanded for an explanation from Finance Bank on how confidential information regarding his private account was availed to a third party.

Sata had written to President Mwanawasa asking him to investigate Chipoya whom he suspected to be involved in money laundering as he withdrew about K4 billion from Finance Bank within a period of 30 days. But Darlington Mwape stated that the money was from President Mwanawasa's personal account which was legally raised from various sources for the purpose of campaigns and that the withdrawals were at his instance.

And King said Sata's allegations could not stand because the transactions were all in compliance with the banking and financial services Act and within the ambit of the laws of Zambia. "Finance Bank Zambia Limited employs over 600 Zambians and all its transactions are transparent. Every member of staff is legally bound to an Oath of Secrecy, as is common practice in the financial sector. Any violation of this code of conduct is a serious breach of contract," King said. "Investigations have commenced on employee ethics and code of conduct and any culprits will be brought to book if it transpires that bank transactions have wilfully and unlawfully been made public."

King said it was most unfortunate that in a country with political maturity, some leaders succumbed to misleading information from informers with their own selfish interests to serve, which information they used for politicking. "In the meantime, we express our unreserved apology to His Excellency the President for any embarrassment and inconvenience the article may have caused him," said King.

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