The chief executive officer of Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL), Muyenga Atanga, has been fired over, among other things, a telecommunication and signaling contract involving Huawei Technologies and South African PC assembler and distributor Mustek Limited.

The contract for Zambia Railways, signed early last year, involved the supply and delivery of R128 million worth of Huawei's signaling and telecommunication equipment by Mustek to a consortium consisting of Huawei International, Bombardier Transportation and GMC Technologies Zambia Limited.

The consortium planned to provide a technology upgrade for ZRL at a cost of $51 million.

Atanga said the decision by the board to fire him stemmed from the contract to provide technology upgrade to Zambia Railways, but that the figure of $51 million, which the board believes was spent on the project, is not correct.

In a letter to the country's minister of communications and transport, Yamfwa Mukanga, dated May 31, Atanga said the $51 million was a project sum and the company planned to implement the project over a two-year period, adding that implementation would be on "available cash basis".

However, this proposal was rejected by the contractors, forcing ZRL to implement only one part of the project.

"This was fully discussed with the contractors and the signaling part was stopped due to the non-availability of the funds. We only proceeded with the telecommunication part where we paid $8.8 million," said Atanga in his communication to the minister.

Zambia Railways had not been committed to the $51 million deal, as the board is portraying it Atanga added.

Minister Mukanga has also confirmed Atanga's sacking by the board.

Atanga joined ZRL in 2012 following the dismissal of another chief executive officer who was accused of financial misappropriation.

Atanga has not disclosed what his next move will be.