Judge blasts govt’s fertiliser contracts decision as “irrational” and “unlawful” — now taxpayers must foot the bill

Judge Simeon Mdeza did not mince his words when he delivered the damning verdict in Lilongwe on 27 August, branding the government’s conduct “ultra vires, irrational, procedurally unfair” — legal speak for a decision so flawed it should never have been allowed to stand.

The four firms at the centre of the row — Mulli Brothers Limited, Web Commercials Limited, Rock Ba Rock, and FF Trading — took the fight to court after being frozen out of the 2020/21 Affordable Inputs Programme, the scheme now known as the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP), despite having been recommended for the contracts in the first place.

“They were the chosen ones — then they were dumped”

Court documents reveal the companies had already been through the wringer of the official bidding process and come out the other side as winners, evaluated and put forward by the very body tasked with awarding the contracts.

But instead of being handed the deal to supply fertiliser to farmers across the country, the firms were controversially shut out — with the government instead attempting to funnel the contract to the State-owned Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM), branding it an “interested party.”

The companies cried foul, dragging the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) Review Committee and the Attorney General to court to answer for the snub.

Judge sides firmly with the firms

Delivering his ruling, Judge Mdeza left no room for ambiguity, declaring that the firms had “discharged the burden of demonstrating that the defendant failed to act within its statutory powers.”

“Accordingly, the application for judicial review is successful,” he ruled — a verdict that will make uncomfortable reading for officials across government.

The judge ordered that the government compensate the companies for a string of losses stemming from the botched process — including loss of business, profit and revenue — with the exact payout to be determined by the Registrar if the two sides cannot agree on a figure themselves.

Damning claims over “outstanding loans”

In a twist that will raise eyebrows, court papers show the companies claimed the Secretary for Agriculture had told the Reserve Bank of Malawi that they carried outstanding loans with government — a claim used, they say, to justify shutting them out of contracts they had legitimately earned.

The ruling piles fresh pressure on a government already under fire over its handling of the country’s agricultural input schemes, and raises fresh

questions over just how contracts are awarded — and withdrawn — behind closed doors in Lilongwe.