Kambala announces all Nocma tenders cancelled until new management is instituted

Minister of Energy Newton Kambala has announced that government has cancelled the current round of tendering of all products, including petroleum supply, at National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) until new management is instituted at the state-owned oil company.

Kambala said at the  news conference that government had noted public concerns on the situation at Nocma where the executive management is currently not complete because some members are on suspension.

Said Kambala: “In the absence of a credible management, the fuel supply tender be cancelled. As government, we take public outcry very seriously and this is why His Excellency the State President issued a directive through his public statement on November 5 2020, that issues at Nocma needed to be resolved immediately.”

The cancellation of the tenders at Nocma is coming  after it had received bids for its advertised fuel supply tender for 314.820 metric tonnes (MT) for 2020/2021.

Kambala announced the cancellation of all tenders.

Nocma is among State institutions that have been hitting headlines for bad reasons since the change of government in June this year. Police arrested the organisation’s chief executive officer Gift Dulla in September 2020 on charges of abuse of office.

Dulla’s deputy Hellen Buluma was made  acting CEO but  was also forced out aby the board after President Lazarus Chakwera, who described Buluma as “a party operative”, instructed the board to look into matters surrounding her hiring.

A group of people purporting to be Nocma workers also wrote the organisation’s board chair, asking him to remove Buluma because her relationship with workers “unreconciliable.”