Amidst allegations of sabotage, SPC Zamba shuns fuel stakeholders meeting summoned by Usi
In a move that has left stakeholders and the general public fuming, the embattled Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC), Colleen Zamba, brazenly shunned a critical fuel stakeholders meeting convened by Vice President Michael Usi, who also doubles as Minister of Public Service Delivery. Zamba’s absence was not only conspicuous but also deeply telling—she neither sent an apology nor any explanation for her glaring no-show.
This meeting, pivotal in addressing Malawi’s spiraling fuel crisis, brought together key officials including Energy Minister Ibrahim Matola, Principal Secretary for Energy Engineer Alfonso Chikuni, and National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) CEO Clement Kanyama. Their agenda? To dissect the persistent delays in fuel transportation from Tanga, Tanzania, linked to the UAE government-to-government procurement deal. But the very person whose office should be central to such discussions, Zamba, opted out without a shred of accountability.
Dodging Responsibility Amid Scandal
Sources within her office reveal that Zamba’s absence was not due to scheduling conflicts but rather a calculated move. “She’s been sidelined from the current fuel procurement strategies chaired by Matola because of the growing allegations that she was a primary beneficiary of the dubious fuel deals involving ‘dobadobas’ (middlemen),” an insider disclosed. It appears Zamba couldn’t stomach sitting with officials she suspects of orchestrating her political downfall.
But this is not Zamba’s first brush with controversy. Her name has become synonymous with corruption, cronyism, and backdoor dealings that have plunged Malawi into one procurement scandal after another.
A Web of Corruption and Deceit
Zamba’s notoriety skyrocketed following shocking revelations of her involvement in negotiating shady fuel and fertilizer deals worth K1.5 trillion without adhering to proper procurement protocols. According to investigative reports, she single-handedly brokered a Memorandum of Understanding with a dubious Dubai-based firm linked to Sheikh Ahmed Al-Qassimi, bypassing all regulatory safeguards.
Worse still, Zamba was implicated in advancing payments to suppliers without the delivery of goods, an audacious disregard for financial prudence. One such egregious case involved the Ministry of Transport issuing invoices worth K2.3 billion to G.E.T Global Ltd, a dormant shell company with assets valued at a mere K6,000. The term “emergency” was cynically exploited to justify these irregularities, cutting procurement corners with reckless abandon.
Further digging revealed that payments were funneled through suspicious entities like OptCoin Malawi and Option Malawi, accounts tied to Zamba’s associates in South Africa, underscoring the depth of her entanglement in financial malpractice.
A History of Elbowing Out Regulatory Bodies
Zamba’s modus operandi has been clear: centralize power, eliminate oversight, and profit from opacity. She, alongside Transport Minister Jacob Hara, systematically sidelined key regulatory bodies like the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) in major fuel procurement deals. NOCMA, the national oil watchdog, was reduced to a mere errand boy, executing directives from Zamba without question.
Despite glaring irregularities, attempts to whitewash these scandals have been relentless. NOCMA held a press briefing to dismiss allegations of procurement fraud, yet documents in the public domain tell a different story—one of systematic abuse of power, fraudulent contracts, and financial mismanagement.
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