Malawi risk losing K13bn for Lilongwe water project over Itaye: European Investment Bank queries LWB CEO’s recruitment.
European Investment Bank (EIB) which is financing a new water treatment plant for Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has written Ministry of Finance querying the recruitment of Godfrey Itaye as the board’s chief executive officer (CEO) despite his alleged involvement in fraud and corruption.
The Lilongwe Drought Resilience programme intends to construct a new water treatment plant to increase the capacity to supply clean water to the Lilongwe city and the suburbs.
In a letter dated October 7 2020 addressed to Minister of Finance Felix Mlusu, which Nyasa Times has seen, EIB, which is expected to pump in 15 million Euros (about K13 billion) for the construction of the treatment works project in the capital city Lilongwe says Itaye’s recruitment may affect the process.
The letter was co-signed by the bank’s head of division (sub-Saharan Africa) Diederick Zambon and senior investment officer (sub-Saharan Africa) Jim Hodges, EIB.
Reads the letter in part: “The charged raised against the chief executive officer of Lilongwe Water Board will negatively impact our ability to conclude the finance contract with the Ministry of Finance as we are unable to have persons under criminal charge involved in our project, particularly given the relatively recent incident of irregularity.”
The financier has also expressed concern on Capital Hill’s decision to side-line it in the recruitment process despite an agreement to do so owing to previous corruption reports at LWB.
“On 9th April 2020, we received written assurances from the Ministry of Finance that a new chief executive officer for the Lilongwe Water Board would be competitively recruited and that the EIB and World Bank would be updated once the recruitment process is completed.
“Unfortunately, we did not receive such an update and consequently, it is difficult to determine if a competitive recruitment process was undertaken,” reads the letter.
It continued: “It was with much disappointment when we learnt of reports in the media that the newly appointed chief executive officer of Lilongwe Water Board had been arrested and may be facing criminal charges. This development, of course, causes an inconsiderable concern.”
EIB has also urged Malawi government to ensure that that another senior officer at LWB, Sinosi Maliano, who is facing charges by the EIB’s Fraud and Investigations Division, should not be involved in the project.
The EIB – one of the world’s largest lenders for the water sector and is owned directly by the 28 European Union members states – has a zero-tolerance policy on fraud or corruption.
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Just relocate this thief to some stupid position at capital hill. Let him fire himself out of frustration and the government doesn’t have to pay him a dime
The law is Explicit. The presumption of innocence until one is found guilty.The European Union is being overzealous . They have already made their judgement. Yes they should be zero tolerance on corruption but only when one is found guilty.what happens when he is found not guilty.
Good project, Itaye & Sinosi in, no money in. Tired of these thieves.
DPP did this.Please Nyasatimes it’s important to make it clear that Italye was hired by the DPP.
Its hard to define Malawi’s Governance system. The guy has enjoyed the first 100 days of the Tonse Government. He has stayed put at the helm one of the reputable water utilities in the country regardless well known fraudulent powers that put him there. Furthermore, it does not seem anything is being done to relocate the guy. All is quiet and simple for him. He is not an engineer in fact not any closer. In fact his current powers charge him to make orders and the learned engineers do obey. That’s Malawi; the warm heart of Africa where thieves have… Read more »
Point of Correction.You do not have to be an Engineer to head an Engineering Company. Most Engineering concerns are headed by CA’s. Its all about making money.
You are right. This thinking that only Engineers should head ESCOM, Water Boards and other related organizations is shallow to me. With an MBA you can run any organization in the world.
Just send this sucker to capital hill. Whilst you finalize your investigations on him.
Government will. Cough up a lot to fire this guy, wasn’t he given a contract recently?
So what. Where does say that when one has a contract cannot be fired. Do you know the phraseology of the contract itself? Should theft or fraud be left unchecked on an employee because they have a contract? Does a contract not spell out rules to be followed and what actions would to be taken should those rules be violated?
Judge Nkandawirw has just been awarded 288 million kwacha for unfair dismisal. It costs to fire someone without reason
The guy was hired by DPP. In fact when he was removed from MACRA he was sent back to Malawi postal srvices wher he was before joining MACRA. No one know how DPP twisted things and sent him to LWB where he was getting the same benefits he enjoyed at MACRA. When Tonse alliance came to power they wwere well aware of this boy, but took time to deal with him. Now we cannot blame DPP for this mess, but Tonse for sleeping on the job and fail to clear the rubble. Now you can see how embarrassing it is… Read more »
Problem is Government will be forced to pay k750 million in severance if they fire him. Better to convict him on corruption related charges and pay nothing. Time Government and the Courts were serious in stopping corruption to ensure investment and grants from donors and investors for the benefit of all Malawians.
Lets do the right thing here, this being a donor funded project, they deserve to be part of the process….involve them.