Malawi under DPP – ‘Cash-gate’ now embedded in bills?

 “This is a very technical subject. The Bill should be transferred to a committee of Parliament to look at it. We really have to think hard,” Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe.

Swift Recap:

Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and People’s Party (PP) on June 10, 2015rejected a government bill seeking authorisation to borrow about K9.8 billion from European Investment Bank (EIB).

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe holds his Budget box
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe holds his Budget box

Funds were supposedly meant to finance the upgrading of essential aviation safety and security equipment at Kamuzu and Chileka international airports.

Tabling the Bill, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said among other things, the funds would be used for:

  • Installation of surveillance equipment, navigation equipment comprising of existing Very High Frequency (VHF) and Direction Finder (VDF), meteorological equipment and runway visual range.
  • Installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) link to tower and upper station link, completion of taxiway, and purchase of rescue fire-fighting services and x-ray machines.
  • Procurement of equipment for communication, navigation and meteorology at Chileka International Airport.
  • Upgrading perimeter road and new airfield lighting equipment.

Enter Mzimba Solola MP, Jacob Hara: DPP still in Noah’s Arch

Mzimba Solola MP, Jacob Hara, argued that said it was ridiculous that most of the equipment which government said it wanted to purchase were obsolete. He gave the VDF (Direction Finder) as something from Noah’s arch and not required in modern airports.

“This piece of equipment locates the position of an aircraft using Very High frequencies.International civil aviation is now migrating from ground-based equipment to satellite based equipment…DPP please wake up from your colour dreams. We are now in the e-world.” Hara schooled the DPP.

Ditto Mzimba Solola MP, Jacob Hara: Deliberate Pilfering Pranks (DPP)

Hara further argued that completion of taxiway at KIA was already done about four years ago under the late Bingu wa Mutharika administration.

He also noted a repetition of projects, recalling that on Friday, Ministry of Transport signed agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) on a number of activities Japan will be funding under which surveillance radar items; CCTV link, x-ray machines and baggage screening machines were, again, covered.

“Unless these issues are addressed and amended, we are very concerned with these irregularities and there is no way MCP can pass bills for government to borrow money for items that have been done,” he pointed out.

Enter Chitipa South legislator Werani Chilenga:

Concurring with Hara, PP’s Chitipa South legislator Werani Chilenga wondered why government is ignoring other airfields.

“While money is being wasted like this, Mr. Speaker Sir, other airports are not being taken care of. I’m talking of Mtakataka Police Airwing, Zomba and Old Airport. Lack of equipment there has put our men in uniform at risk,” Chilenga said.

Back to the drawing board?

Despite Minister of Transport, Francis Kasaila futile “clarifications” on the obsolete gadgets and duplications noted by Hara and the misplaced priorities noted by Chilenga; Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe temporarily withdrew the bill so that Parliamentary Committee on Transport should scrutinize concerns raised by the two political parties.

What does this mean?

Four things are clear. First of all, someone, somewhere, schemed to get a loan (K9.8 billion from European Investment Bank (EIB)) for items Malawi would not buy because they are either obsolete or have been funded otherwise.

Secondly, any which way, these funds – had the bill passed – would have been “spent”. On whom and what, only God knows.

Thirdly, either the Executive is living in Noah’s time and is entirely out of touch with recent technology, or they are irredeemable thieves who will use any trick, in and outside the book, to get their dirty hands on money which they can squander.

And more pertinently, this is why despite all the aid and debt that Malawi has been receiving and continues to get, nothing is changing for the better on the ground for the ordinary boy, girl, man and woman in the village.

What can we do?

Malawians cannot afford to leave the good work of providing checks and balances on this devious Executive to Parliament alone.

Governance, good governance, needs no spectators.

It is therefore incumbent upon any Malawian, who hopes to see Malawi develop, to watch each and every move of this government while its mandate lasts, and come the next election, put the last nail on the coffin of thieving leaders.

How can Malawi develop when the Executive is serious only with self-enrichment?

Was this scam just an oversight? It cannot be. Malawi has too many technology savvy people not to know that we are living in the digital age.

How about the duplications, were they too just minor irregularities? It cannot be. The Ministry of Transport was aware that the agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) covered the very surveillance radar items included in this bill.

To conclude, let there be no peace for the wicked! “Cash-gate” disguised as developmental bills, or in whatever form, should have no place in the Malawi we want, the Malawi we need, and the country we love.

One final word: If this is the way Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and his cohorts want to run down Malawi, then as Goodal Gondwe has said, they have another think coming.

Like all Nyasa Times correspondents and columnists, I will not rest.

 

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23 Comments
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Charter
Charter
8 years ago

APM, GG, GC, etc, scratch your heads on the next thieving step! Mwagwidwa!!! Thanks Hon. Hara for exposing thugs in the budget.

Yahudah
8 years ago

IsaiYAH 3:12
My people youth are your oppressor and woman rule over you. Oh my people your leaders lead you astray and swallow the ways of your path.

tuvitwana
tuvitwana
8 years ago

MWAMUONA NTUMBUKA? A LOMWE ANGOTI PHWII MU PARLIAMENT. NO BRAINS

Manyetera
Manyetera
8 years ago

Nice try dpp with your stupid govmnt. Try another trick u m**f**ckers

Paradiso
Paradiso
8 years ago

Thanks hon Hara and MCP for a job well done.

Gutepo Mphwinyo
Gutepo Mphwinyo
8 years ago

congrats jacob mtumbuka wanzeru oyamba kumuona pamoyo wanga. keep up with the good word and let all bootlickers follow suit

yooo
8 years ago

Where is my country going?

Chawanangwa
Chawanangwa
8 years ago

Problem is that some Malawians celebrate mediocrity – instead of using excellent human resources available in government to come up with a good bill, only politicians are involved in drafting the bill. Malawi Civil Service has some of the best hydrologists, engineers, doctors, teachers, pilots, nurses etc but we don’t use what we have. It’s one of the few countries where success is not really celebrated – if somebody is an excellent accountant who could help manage country finances, they wouldn’t dare to give them an Accountant General position. They would first of all figure out where you come from.… Read more »

Kenkkk
Kenkkk
8 years ago

No rest for the wicked indeed. Dpp is trying to invent as many possible ways of stealing money as possible because national and international scrutiny is becoming tight.

So please opposition mps tighten the grip and shame these dpp thieves. They have no morality whatsoever.

pilot
pilot
8 years ago

I agree wit Hon Nthara. From practical experience as a pilot, the VDF as a surveillance equipment by Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) is outdated and it is of little use: 1. It cannot fully aid ATC to provide vertical separation and lateral separation to aircraft since it doesn’t display flight levels and how far apart the aircraft are respectively. 2. Can only detect the aircraft wich is transmiting using VHF radios and not HF, UHF, etc meaning aircraft wit radio comunicatation failure (RCF) cannot be detected on the VDF display screen. 3. It greatly suffers line-of-sight limitations. 4. It is… Read more »

JJB
JJB
8 years ago
Reply to  pilot

On one hand we say we are poor, on the other we say we should have satellite equipment.

Yet again we want to cut ties with donors.

Is the Satellite equipment free?

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