Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an investigation into the rural telecom towers project undertaken by China's Huawei Technologies.

The country's anti-corruption watchdog wants to establish whether there was corruption in the manner the contract was awarded to Huawei Technologies by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA).

The project, launched in April 2014, involves the installation of 169 telecom towers in rural areas across the country's 10 provinces at a total cost of $13.5 million.

In January 2015 a report by the Consumer Unity Trust Society revealed that communication towers in Zambia's rural areas do not meet technical or legal requirements. The towers are said to fall short of the 5km macro-coverage radius specified by ZICTA in the bid document as the coverage of most of the installed towers is reported to be 1,63 km.

The launch of the investigation follows reports that ZICTA has gone with Huawei Technologies for the second phase of the project, despite indications that erected towers fail to meet specifications.

Zambian lawmakers sitting on the Committee on Telecommunications said there is 'something fishy' in the manner ZICTA allowed Huawei to abrogate the terms of reference.

Committee on Telecommunications chairperson Viatlis Mooya said it was appropriate that the matter be thoroughly investigated by the anti-corruption Commission because it was hard to understand why ZICTA allowed Huawei Technologies to install telecom towers that were below the specifications in the bid document.

The lawmakers feel ZICTA is not being sincere, prudent and transparent in the manner it has handled the project.

However ZICTA director general Margaret Mudenda said the authority is aware that the towers being erected do not meet the specifications, but that they have reached an agreement with Huawei to rectify the problem.

"We know there is this problem but it will be corrected during the second phase of the project," Mudenda said.

Huawei Technologies Zambia could not be reached for comment.