Youth and Sports Minister Enoch Chihana’s failure to travel to Ethiopia for an AU Youth Ministers Summit despite pocketing allowances for the trip has sent tongues wagging among staff in the ministry.

But Chihana, who in an interview on Wednesday admitted drawing government allowances for the Ethiopian trip, said he never squandered the money, but used the same allowance in South Africa after being assigned a fresh official assignment by the Office of the President and Cabinet.

According to well placed sources, Chihana was supposed to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in September for the three-day 4th Ordinary Session of the Conference of the African Union Ministers in Charge of Youth Development, but instead the minister ended up in South Africa.

“The meeting was from September 12 to 14, but the minister did not make it but only sent some representatives when the truth is he got allowances meant for the trip. We were just told that he was stuck in South Africa,” the source said.

Chihana confirmed to have received the allowances as well as travelling to South Africa instead of Ethiopia explaining that he was under Presidential orders.

He said he had prepared to travel to Ethiopia but the President asked him to send a delegation so that he could go to South Africa to “broker some government deal”.

“It is true that I failed to travel to Ethiopia, but to say that I was stuck in South Africa is wrong.

“I had prepared to attend the conference but I received a call from the Office of the President (OPC) telling me that I should delegate others to Ethiopia and instead I should go to South Africa to broker some government deal. As you are aware it is the power of the president to delegate so I was just following orders,” Chihana said.

On whether he pocketed the allowances or not, Chihana said he used the same allowance meant for the aborted Ethiopian trip on his mission to South Africa.

He said the allowance fell short because he stayed longer than he could have done in Ethiopia.

“What happened was I used the same allowance, which I was supposed to use in Ethiopia. I stayed longer in South Africa and ended up using my own money. You can ask the OPC about this. In fact I was supposed to claim some money from the government but I did not because I thought it was just my service to the country,” he said.

Officials in the ministry are also unhappy that on his trip to Zone 6 tournament in Zambia in December, Chihana travelled along his wife, brother and a sister.

A list of those who travelled indicate that instead of only having the Minister, Jameson Ndalama (Director of Sports), D.C Gama (Driver) and B.V Chipala, the list also included Mrs T. Chakhaza Chihana, Mr H. Katola Phiri and Ms T.Chihana.

“What surprised us is that the total amount went to as much as K5 million just for less than 10 days when we were expecting to have just four people travelling,” the source said.

External allowance for a Minister is between US$300 and $450 while those of directors are pegged at $180-$250 while drivers and security personnel is between US$70-$120 per day.

But Chihana also denied having taken along relatives on government’s bill claiming that his wife was on her way to South Africa for other businesses and that she used her own resources.

“You are talking about my wife who was proceeding to South Africa and I only gave her a lift. We never used government money except for myself. I did not stay there for long because I wanted to cut government’s expenditure,” Chihana argued.