Centre for Mindset Change urges Minister Jacob Hara to exorcise his ministry of hardcore thieves

Centre for Mindset Change (CMC) has challenged the newly appointed Minister of Transport and Public works, Jacob Hara, to take a leading role in the fight against corruption in the awarding of construction projects.

CMC Executive Director Phillip Kamangirah, who addressed journalists in Lilongwe on Tuesday, alleged that the ministry is laden with crooked officials; hence, the new minister needs to be proactive and wear a different hat.

President Dr. Lazarus Chakera on Monday evening appointed the Mzimba Solola legislator as the new Minister of Transport and Public Works, replacing late Sidik Mia who died of Covid-19 on January 12, 2021.

Kamangirah described Hara as the most suitable candidate for the ministry because of his background in engineering.

“The best musicians play what they master, we know that the newly appointed minister is an engineer by profession and has knowledge on build and design and we are not expecting anything shoddy except brilliance and perfomance from him. A message of warning to him is that he should disassociate himself from those members who we know in the ministry are not competent and honest enough. He should stand on his ground to work in the interest of Malawians,” he said

On the other hand, Kamangirah commended the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for the determination they made on third December after CMC had officially written them demanding that the contract which the ministry of transport and publics works was intending to award to Mota-Engil amounting to K48.2 billion in the rehabilitation of railway section between Marka and Bangula in Nsanje should be cancelled pending investigations and they did.

“We are pleased to acknowledge the efforts that were made by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, indeed our request was accepted and we are glad that Moto-Engel has been cancelled among the bidders in the project.

“We also need to inform the ministry of Transport and Public works that whatever they did in the first place they should not repeat it this time. We know that ACB has directed the ministry to do a reevaluation process within 15 days and we are hoping for the best not dubious deals,” he said.

He further requested Mota Engil to pay back all the money they acquired through dubious deals in various uncompleted projects in the country.

In his remarks, CMC Programs Manager Willard Mhone said there is also a need to investigate all the senior authorities in the Ministry who were involved in the vetting process that resulted in handpicking Mota Engil.

Among others, he said, the evaluation process committee members that were involved in the botched evaluation must never be involved in any tender evaluation process and must face disciplinary action as they have delayed the project for over 15 months.

“The process of selecting a new committee must be as transparent as Possible to avoid suspicion. The evaluation committee that will be engaged this time around must be accepted by the responsible department that implements this project and must understand design and build projects.

Mhone said CMC will keep eyes open and make sure that taxpayers money is properly being used in the country.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!