Macra new boss Shamu abuses position

Newly-appointed director general for Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) Henry Shamu is clinging to an executive vehicle from Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) and demanding a new one from the new employer.

MPC bought a Toyota Prado TX less than two years ago registration number BV 6767 which Shamu has grabbed and is using it as a personal vehicle and is pushing Macra to buy him a brand new Toyota Prado VXL.

Shamu has not qualified to buy the official vehicle he was using at MPC according to conditions of service as the vehicle needs to clock 4 years before it can be offered to the officer who was using for purchase.

“Mr. Shamu afika ndi ululu…he is pressurizing the Finance Director Ben Chitsonga to buy him a new vehicle just like the one that his predecessor Godfrey Itaye was using. But he has been told that only the board of directors can approve that expenditure and at the moment the board has been dissolved. But he is having none of it,” said an insider at Macra.

It has also been revealed that Shamu has a loan of up to K23 million which he took whilst at MPC and his former employers are demanding settlement of the loan by Macra.

According to a letter from MPC dated 25 June 2020 signed by Noel Fole MPC Directr of Finance and Administration to Macra, Shamu had an outstanding loan amount totaling to K23, 856,509.98.

“However, the Corporation has pension arrears of K7,572,647.25 payable to Old Mutual. The net amount payable to us is therefore K16,283,862.73,” reads the letter in part.

Insiders at MPC wondered why Shamu got the huge loan amount when other employees were denied ‘small’ loans saying the organization was going through cashflow problems.

Shamu could not pick  phone calls and neither could he respond to  messages left on his phone soliciting a comment.

Meanwhile, compromised Comptroller of Statutory Corporations, Stuart Ligomeka is bulldozing Macra to continue paying beleaguered Director General Godfrey Redson Itaye.

Ligomeka has directed Macra to continue paying Salary and benefits for Itaye despite him being posted out to Lilongwe Water Board arguing that Macra should be claiming the expenses from Lilongwe Water Board.

Insiders also revealed that contrary to conditions of service, Itaye took with him a Toyota Landcruiser Prado VXL registration number CA3672, belonging to Macra.

“This is a clear violation to vehicle entitlement for Chief Executive Officers of parastatals,” said a top high ranking government official at Capital Hill.

According to records we have seen, Chief Executive Officers of parastatals are allowed to drive a Toyota Landcruiser Prado TX a condition that was waived for Macra but not for Lilongwe Water Board.

We can also confirm that Itaye through Macra Procurement Specialist, Joseph Galawa and Finance Manager Phillip Nakoma are trying to alter information in the authority’s accounting system ACCPAc. We can confirm that Nakoma has been busy throughout the weekend to convince an expert from ACCPac Ajay Misheer to assit him with the plans.

On the other hand Ngalawa was last week busy trying to call for a management meeting to lobby his senior colleagues to help him come up with an explanation on the illegal procurements that have recently been exposed.