Malawi army food deal with Hotel Victoria smacks of corruption -Soldiers
Malawi Defence Force (MDF) food supplying deal with Hotel Victoria and Kanjedza Lodge has been faulted for being riddled with corruption.
Hotel Victoria and Kanjedza Lodge, run by the Blantyre-based and politically connected Gani family, have the multibillion kwacha contract with the MDF where it supplies food to soldiers at Cobbe Barracks, Changalume Barracks, Air Wing Zomba base, Blantyre Camp and Mafco in Salima.
The contract dates back to the late president Bingu Mutharika’s reign, and the Ganis, according to sources within and outside MDF, have been playing good to the governing political parties to keep the contract running, regardless of serious poor services the soldiers complain about.
One soldier, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, said the Hotel Victoria and Kanjedza Lodge services are not up to the standard.
He said despite offering poor services it was surprising and suspicious that they still manage to get contract renewals because of the political connections.
The soldier alleged top Army officials have also benefited from the contract in several ways, adding it was an open secret that the Ganis have been sponsoring Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ‘Blue Night’ parties that are organised to raise funds for the party.
The Blue Nights have recently stirred controversy after civil society organisations (CSO) have demanded that the DPP should refund money some city councils and parastatals donated to the DPP during the latest Blue Night the party organized in Lilongwe.
The CSO are also taking the matter to court.
Another soldier said most of them have complained officially to the administration about the poor services, but nothing changes.
“Strangely, in some situations, the soldiers are given cash by the Hotel Victoria and Kanjedza Lodge to look for food for themselves and the MDF pays the Hotel Victoria and Kanjedza Lodge, what sort of arrangement is that?
“Where money is paid, it is an issue of capacity that they cannot manage to provide food. And why should someone contracted to provide services pay the solders allowances for food and he then gets paid by the MDF? This is outright dubious and something our bosses should have avoided,” the soldier said.
The source disclosed that complaints in the past by the soldiers have been directed to former commander generals Henry Odilo, Ignasio Maulana and the current Griffin Supuni, but nothing changes.
The source disclosed that the soldiers going for border operations in Nsanje and Phalombe are the most affected as they are given little food for the whole month and little money to buy fresh foods such as tomatoes, meat and bread.
“For example, at some point each soldier was supposed to receive K1 500 per day but when given money to platoon commander going for these operations, they received K800 each. I experienced this myself,” he said.
The soldier said they suffer in silence because if they complain, they are regarded as a pariah and they can be sidelined from many opportunities such as going for peace keeping missions and they cannot be promoted.
“The soldiers are afraid of this and they resort to writing anonymous letters. You know even about the United Nations (UN) peace keeping issue, soldiers have not been receiving as per UN rate and the payments are always delayed. But they expect us to remain silent.
“We see senior MDF officers enjoying free services at Hotel Victoria when the Army has a contract with them. If this does not smell corruption, tell me what it is,” the soldier said.
The soldier also alleged that the commander general Supuni had a wedding recently of his son in Lilongwe and catering services were provided for free by the Hotel Victoria.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
muzingopita ku darfur ndiku drc mukudandaula zakudya munabwerera kudya ku mdf ko kapena ntchito tazidyani zauvezo muzifa ena apeze nawo ntchito kumeneko
The most notable thing to me was that it seems it is too much for one contractor unless if they subcontract. But for one contractor to supply all those barracks definetely quality will be compromised. Share the national cake at the same time you will improve on quality.
Think positive and talk positive,leave gani alone, show us if u have the capacity to bit him zangoonekeratu kuti mumamuopa
I think malawi is going off truck, when someone has a helping hand we try to pull him down we have talked a lot about bushiri and now we are talking about gani’s, za zee tikhalira zomwezo,we need to think positively gani is doing a lot to change the face of malawi,but we are busy trying to pull him back crazy u ,sanje wont take us anywhere
ngati pali department ya boma which is full of corruption, fraud, theft of government money. It is MDF. zaka ndi zaka akhala akumathawa ma audit exercises under the pretext of security classified information. This led to plunder of government money in excess by those in authority in MDF. Zinaululidwa zija ndi pang’ono chabe. Agalu amenewa asakaza chuma cha boma chochuluka.
Za ziiii
Tamangodyani asakhwi inu. Kukanika kusintha zinthu mukuti discipline! Tiyeni nazo
And Kanjedza Lodge is owned by the Chaponda family. EEEEEeeeeeeeiiiiiishhhhh!!!!!!!
Who does not know victoria hotel and kanjedza lodge are owned by the same people
We blak people are seriously abnormal to accept this
Supuni – we soldiers are going to question you in a few days
Be prepared to see something u never dreamt of
Summary of gani and mw govt
1. Supplies books to ministry of education at 500% profit margin
2. Sells food to the army at 300% profit margin. Monthly invoice of 600 million kwacha
3. Renews contract without allowing a public tender process
4. Supplies tyres to mdf
5.Supplies expired drugs to mdf and nothing can be done
5. Releases a mecedes benz and 3 range rover duty free
6. Currently neggotiating a 10 m usd contract with mdf
This mwenye and his supuni will answer charges of theft by public office when the human rights abserves start demanding answers