Unprofessional conduct of Malawi spy chief Nicholas Dausi

It is a known fact that the majority of the electorate casted their votes in the May 20, 2014 Tripartite election because they were convinced with the Manifesto of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). One of the promises that were made in the DPP manifesto was the provision of sound and effective security policies.

Some Malawians are concerned that the current Government seems to be failing to fulfill this pledge, among other things, because of late there has been numerous reports of criminal incidents country-wide.

According to reliable sources within the Malawi Police Service (MPS), one of the contributing factors to insecurity is the intelligence failure, that is, the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) is failing to provide timely, reliable, relevant, accurate and actionable criminal intelligence to the MPS to help in combating crime.

Apart from poor leadership skills by the current head of the NIB, Mr. Nicholas H. Dausi, another reason is that a number of NIB officers have downed their tools because they are not happy that their boss who is supposed to be exemplary is fond of abusing funds which is meant for the smooth running of the public institution.

In Intelligence, open and closed sources of information are used to acquire intelligence information that is transformed into a product called “intelligence”. Although open sources are readily available, the information that is obtained through this method is only reliable if it has undergone through thorough research and analysis.

Due to this, for an intelligence service to be effective its officers are encouraged to gather the required information through covert means since the required information is obtained by human sources who have direct or indirect access to the required information. Cultivation and recruitment of human sources involves a lot of money, since Mr Dausi uses public funds meant for such clandestine operations for personal gains, the NIB fails to maintain an effective source running hence the failure to produce criminal intelligence for its officers are unable to either recruit criminals or penetrate criminal gangs to obtain the required information.

The Director General uses Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) funds to implement development projects in Mwanza Central Constituency in readiness for the 2019 elections at the expense of state security operations.

Furthermore, Mr Dausi has also been using the public funds to acquire plots along the Mchinji – Lilongwe road especially around Mpingu Trading Centre. Some of the transactions were done on his behalf by Miss Naomi Wisiki an Assistant Administrative Officer who is also his collest ally.

In addition to the above, Mr Dausi has also been flouting the Public Procurement Act by directing that all the NIB’s vehicles must be maintained or serviced by Messrs. Geoffrey and Chinseu. The latter is Mr. Dausi’s brother-in-law. These mechanics are individuals who do not own a company or registered with the Office of the Director of Public Procurement (ODPP)or even the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) as per public rules and regulations.

Mr Dausi as already alluded to above just directed that they should be maintaining official vehicles and they get a daily subsistence allowance of MK15000 per day during their stay in Lilongwe apart from being overpaid when they charge for the work they have done.

The NIB is a public institution which is supposed to be run as such. Numerous calls to establish both an Internal Procurement Committee and an Internal Audit Committee have not been entertained by the Director General who has been siphoning a lot of public funds through this dubious company.

Furthermore, both single sourcing of a vendor and conflict of interest are prohibited by the Public Procurement Act but he has chosen to do it his own way in order to defraud the public purse to enrich himself. The majority of officers are aware of this maladministration, as a result they are not motivated to discharge their duties and responsibilities effectively and efficiently hence the poor production.

As if that is not enough, most experienced officers are also fed up with the unprofessional conduct of the Director General, Mr Dausi who is fond of leaking sensitive information to his bed fellows Messrs Ben Phiri and Chimwemwe Chipungu especially when it involves their closest friends.

For instance, prior to this year’s Independence celebrations, an NIB Officer in the name of Mr Mike Kachule based in Lilongwe authored a report on the unbecoming behavior of Honourable David Bisnowaty, an Independent Member of Parliament for Lilongwe City Centre Constituency who is also the proprietor of SADM, a pharmaceutical company. Since Mr Dausi was aware of the relationship that is there between Hon Bisnowaty and the above named public figures, he reported the officer to them. The two officials confronted, reprimanded and threatened to deal with Mr Kachule in an unspecified manner for reporting the truth about a public figure of national security interest. This sad development did not please a number of NIB officers such that they are afraid nowadays to submit reports to their immediate bosses on sensitive targets for fear of reprisals.

In addition to the above mentioned unethical behaviours, Mr Dausi also promotes nepotism and favoritism in that whenever there is an opportunity for either training abroad or operations (internal and external), the Director General favours a selected few especially newly recruited officers who are also inexperienced in the work, who are from his home district, Mwanza. These unwarranted activities are adding salt on the wounds of a number of officers who are already disgruntled due to lack of promotions and other incentives.

Some of the security challenges the country is facing include human trafficking and smuggling which are on the increase due to corrupt practices by some public officers within the Malawi Police Service, Immigration and NIB. It is sad to note that instead of Mr Dausi to be exemplary to his subordinates by among others developing strong and effective security measures to combat this transnational organized crime, there is evidence that the Director General aids human trafficking and smuggling facilitators particularly of Asian origin by abusing his office.

The NIB is mandated to vet all Visa applicants before a decision is made to issue visas to them. Mr Dausi who receives bribes from Asian nationals such as Lauf Chaundary, owner of Sana Investments and Mr. Singh of Mkotali Group, which runs Naming,omba Tea Estate takes advantage of his official position to clear an undesirable elements such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals at the expense of national security.

A few months ago, Mr Dausi directed the Accounts section to stop disclosing the amount of monthly funding to the entire organizational structure to the effect that the Budget Allocation Committee never meets nowadays to allocate the public funds according to the planned activities of the Bureau.

It is a requirement in government for the Budget Allocation Committee to meet and discuss whenever monthly funding has been released to a public institution for accountability and transparency sake.

The Director General who does the budget allocation alone, is reported to have told his closest friends within the NIB that he will do everything possible not to come out poor again as they were stupid during the late Professor Bingu Wa Mutharika regime so he wants to make hay while the sun shines. He promised to use every opportunity to get where and what he wants.

Mr Dausi who usually gets around K1miillion per week drawn from covert account funds, apart from implementing some development projects in his constituency, has also completed building a four bed roomed house, bought two solar panels at R900,000 each, bought 6 KVA inverter at R23,000, bought six solar batteries at R4000 each. All these are to be fitted at his house in his home village.

Both construction and purchase of the items were financed using public funds meant for the smooth running of the state security service. The items were delivered at his farm house in Mwanza district in May, 2015. Furthermore, at the house which is located right in the deep lying natural forest there are about 20 cows, and a number of goats and that is where the official lorry which consumes a lot of fuel every month for running around in Mwanza district, stays mostly.

All external trips at the office are only for his closest allies. Recently, Mr Kabvala, a desk officer from the Internal Department was supposed to travel to Egypt to attend a counter terrorism course sponsored by the Community of Intelligence and State Security but he was told by the Director General that there was no money for such a trip and yet he sent his concubine Naomi Wisiki to the Republic of South Africa for shopping on government account as she got allowances for her trip and air ticket too. He claimed to have sent her to South Africa to attend a training course on Fleet Management which was recommended by the Ministry of Transport, a claim which was not true at all.

Meanwhile, Mr Dausi included Naomi Wisiki on President Mutharika’s entourage to China despite her name being rejected by State House. The Director General instead used his authority to direct the office that Naomi should still go and that she should go to Guangzhou instead of going to Dalian where the Head of State went. She went to Guangzhou from 5th to 13th September 2015 to buy goods for Mr Dausi using public funds.

On procurement, further to what has been indicated above, although the office has Mr Victor Maluwa as the Procurement Officer, he does not do anything in terms of procurement as Mr Dausi’s ‘very closest ally’ Naomi Wisiki who is not supposed to do any procurement goes around procuring things for the office leaving the Procurement Officer frustrated.

There is no record of most of the funds that are given to Mr Dausi which leaves a lot of questions as to how much goes out without documentation meaning that the resources at NIB are abused left right benefitting a few individuals.

At a time when there is shortage of vehicles at NIB, the Director General is in custody of five official vehicles as follows:

A Toyota Fortuner used by his children

Two Black Prados VX used by him

A Lorry

Another Toyota Prado used by his wife.

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