Escom surrenders vehicles for Chimulirenji convoy: Chilima accuses DPP of abuse of public resources

Financially-troubled Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has surrendered  some of its vehicles which forms part of President Peter Mutharika running mate, Everton Chimulirenji’s convoy,  being used for elections campaign.

State vice-president Saulos Chilima disclosed this  at a UTM Party rally in Kasungu on Saturday.

Chilima has since told the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to immediately withdrew the vehicles, saying this is abuse of public resources.

“It is not the responsibility of Escom to give vehicles for convoys, no. This is pure abuse of public resources and I will not condone it,” said Chilima Chilima said he would continue spilling the beans of corruption and theft of public resources to enhance accountability and transparency.

“They say that I should give evidence, why can’t they deal with the one [Mutharika] who received K145 million and then five vehicles, what evidence do you want?” Chilima asked rhetorically.

The UTM president said Blantyre Water Board received a loan of K160 billion for some works but the board wants to award the contract to contractors with DPP connections without going through the tender system as required by law.

Chilima also said Macra has given the DPP vehicles for use during the campaign, saying he has the registration numbers and the type of vehicles which he would reveal one day.

The UTM president  also said that the DPP is getting money from Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) and Energy Generation Company (Egenco), the company established to generate power, dubiously for the funding of the ruling party.

“You should know that your time is up. The officials who are conniving with the ruling party to do this rot will be accountable for their actions,” he said.

Chilima—who stuck to his script of condemning the rot draining public resources in the DPP administration—is on record to have challenged responsible authorities to investigate officials from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and State Residences over their alleged roles in the award of a contract in the procurement of Escom generators to the fourth bidder instead of the successful bidder.

The Vice-President said a brave female Escom chief executive officer (Evelyn Mwapasa) was transferred to a ‘small” institution for allegedly refusing to take instructions from the officials.

Escom board chairperson Thom Mpinganjira said his board had ordered a forensic investigation into what it called blatant disregard of procurement rules and regulations.

Mpinganjira, an accomplished businessperson and majority shareholder in FDH Financial Holdings Limited, said the irregular procurement decisions have left Escom with materials that it may not use for as long as 10 years while some would, over time, become technologically obsolete.

During the Kasungu rally, Chilima  told the record crowd that DPP will be out of government come May 21 and he would form the next government

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