Zamtel sale fraudulent

By John Chola. A committee set up to investigate the controversial sale of Zamtel's 75 per cent shares to LapGreen of Libya by Rupiah Banda's regime has concluded that it the sale was fraudulent. The Committee led by Justice Minister Sebastian Zulu this morning presented its findings to President Michael Sata at state house. The committee said the Cabinet of former President Rupiah Banda sold Zamtel fraudulently. It says the company hired to valuate Zamtel, RP Capital of Cayman Islands, was single sourced and that it did a poor job. The committee found that Zamtel assets were undervalued and lowly priced. Zulu said Zamtel was under valued at 38 Million United States-US Dollars, despite the company having a book value of 81 Million U.S Dollars. President Sata has since directed Mr. Zulu to develop a Cabinet Memorandum to enable cabinet make a final decision on the sale of Zamtel. Zamtel was sold at US$257 million against the possibility to sale the telecom firm at more than US$88 million. President Sata has asked Justice Minister Zulu to raise a Cabinet memo on whether the sale of Zamtel should be reversed or left as it is. When making a submission to the inquiry , former Vice President, Enoch Kavindele described the sale of 75 per cent shares of Zamtel to Lapgreen as ridiculous. Kavindele said the US$257 million paid for Zamtel was a giveaway price. "US$257 million is what MTN paid to get a license in Nigeria and how can you compare a license to a whole company?" Kavindele asked.