Duwa Mutharika: Complicit in MANEB Scam?

The folly of practicing favoritism on serious government matters has confessed its notoriety again, with the revelation that President Bingu Mutharika's daughter, Duwa Mutharika was awarded the contract to print MSC Examination Papers although she does not have a printing press.

To add insult to this absurdity and upon realizing that she does not have the capacity to print the exams, she decided, to subcontract this huge responsibility to a Durban based Security Company.

"According to the report, the procedures were followed to award the company to print the Examinations" that is according to Nyasa Times, 23 April 2008.

Seriously what nonsense is that? Which procedures are they talking about when we know that there are better companies in South Africa and UK who could have done a better job than this fiasco!

What is intelligent about offering such a critical national assignment or contract to a person who has never done the job before, except for the fact that she is the president's divorced daughter whose father happens to double as President and Minister of Education?

If anything, this poor make-believe enquiry report has only succeeded in exposing the lack of maturity and professional acumen on how to solve our education problems. Please spare us the idiocy!

Given the way the exam papers were stolen in Durban, one can tell that there was no security detail accompanying the driver at all times, and no proper coordination between Duwa Mutharika and the Security Company in Durban regarding security issues. The report is devoid of pertinent forensic details! It is just a bucket of puke!

If Duwa communicated with the printer, then she was possibly discussing divorce or something else. How could the driver steal the exams from the Security Company's premises when the printer knew pretty well that it was dealing with a foreign country's property? Were the exams not "Red Hot" materials? Who is off the mark here?

If the Driver was able to get away with this stunt, won't it be fair to say that the Security Company's responsibility was to just print and not to secure the exam? If that was the case, then who was responsible for security of the exams?

It is neither rocket science nor nuclear pharmacy for anybody who is anyone to see the need for a security escort just to make sure that nobody tinkered with the exams.

Can somebody come in the open and tell us that Duwa's responsibility or task was supposed to end the moment the exams were delivered securely and MANEB through its Security Team and the Chief Executive had certified that the Exams were not interfered with?

How did MANEB account for the missing papers or breached exam envelopes if they certified the secure delivery of the Exams at all? Isn't that the bit MANEB and the Malawi Police should be dealing with on top of arresting the driver and the other culprits? What is the pertinent explanation here?

What kind of country are we living in if top Corporate Executives cannot even have the sense and gall to gather the courage to investigate such anomalies? Isn't this Criminal Investigation 101!

Organizations like MANEB must realize that it is important to focus on the constantly changing requirements of their responsibilities, and provide people like Duwa Mutharika with codes of conduct and information that help them understand all regulations so that security breaches like the one that happened with the exams do not occur.

It is obvious that globally things are changing very quickly and, governments are enacting new laws and regulations related to moral codes and security that impact the way certain companies especially security firms are conducting their business.

This new trend includes companies like the one Duwa subcontracted to print the exams.

Relations amongst employees like drivers and printing staff, which were once considered normal in the conduct of business, are now unsuitable or criminal. Thus all business people need to be very vigilant at all times for any violations of contracts.

While some people may argue that Duwa is not complicit in the MANEB debacle, she still bears the responsibility for failing to ensure the security of the Exams through her interactions with the subcontractor and MANEB.

Honestly all the individuals involved in this matter bear the liability for incompetence and fraudulence, because there is no plausible excuse for them to put the whole nation, in the precarious circumstances that ensued after the racket was exposed.

So much money was wasted and some is still going down the drain as government tries to sift through this mess. Therefore all parties must be made to answer for their failure to be mindful and considerate of the rules of engagement and execution of the contracts and other responsibilities.

The Republic of Malawi is not a family business and its high time we raised the standards, other than entertaining favoritism and utter incompetence just because some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouths or they reside in the State House Compound.