MPs demand probe of North Water Board $14mil procurement scandal
Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) has come under fire for awarding a $14 million contract to Sawa Group when the bidding price was $10.1 million.
The contract is for the Mzimba Integrated Urban Water and Sanitation Project.
The contract was increased by 40 percent after it had been awarded.
The development has raised eye brows.
The project has been co-financed by AfDB to a tune of $5 million (about K3.6 billion), Opec Fund for International Development for $14.85 million (about K10.6 billion) and Malawi Government, $2.9 million (about K2 billion).
Members of Parliament (MPs) in Malawi under the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security have demanded an inquiry into the contract with Sawa Group.
Committee chairperson Joseph Chidanti-Malunga said the contract should be cancelled because it has a hallmark of Cashgate.
“Why add money to the winning bid through he backdoor. These are funds which will have to be repaid,” said Malunga.
Chidanti-Malunga, who is an independent Member of Parliament for Nsanje South West, stressed that corrupt and fraudulent practice should not be tolerated to take place.
He said his committee would be interested to grill NRWB officials on how the conducted the contract.
NRWB procurement specialist Patrick Sibale argued there was nothing wrong with a different figure coming up after the bid had already been successful.
NRWB chief executive officer Titus Mtegha also defended the mess, saying the co-financier AfBD gave “no objection”.
He said Internal Procurement Committee (IPC) arrived at the contract award price of $14.7 million when the bid price was $10 million after going through “a rigorous evaluation.”
“The IPC met and got clearance from the board, then the Office of the Director of Public Procurement and then the AfBD as the donor who gave a letter of ‘no objection,” said Mtegha.
He also said Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development together with Ministry of Finance were involved “ in the whole process.”
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I was wondering how these managers au NRWB are able to send their children to bishop mckenzie out side universities building beautiful lodges in mzuzu . Now I know and please keep quite defending yourselves. This is borrowed money which by end of the day Malawians have to pay back.
The money is a loan and therefore it belongs to tax payers. Tax payers should have say on where and how they money/donation is used. MPs represent us in this regard. It doesn’t need rocket science to determine a corrupt act here. No degree is needed to expose corruption but morality. Corruption works in strong net works/cartels. Who in the donors’ office gave No objective? Are they all saints there?. Remember Mr. Judas Iscariot was among those considered saints. I mean within donors systems there corrupt servants. Dont intimidate us with your so called educated procurement specialists. If a bidder… Read more »
By the way, are you familiar with how No Objections are given by donors like AfDB? Don’t argue based on emotions but understand how things work. Is Malunga himself a saint?
Iwe Dr. Tambala, Wayambanso zomatinyoza ife Atumbuka pa nkhani yakuba ndi Uhule???
You are bias yourself Dear!!!!!!
An Emerging Voice? You must be dull yourself. So you mean the bid can jump from $10.1 to $14.??? Mbava iwe eti? Shupiti
you are the dull one here boss. Its possible for a bid to jump by $4million dollars. One mistake in your excel formula in the BoQ can have that much of serious change. Am not trying to back this up but am giving you possibilities of where the changes can come from. If you haven’t been involved in any evaluation of bids, you can’t understand this
mmmmmmmmmmmm
atumbuka ndiye mbava nambala one. uhulenso!!!!
The ignorance of these MPs in procurement matters and processes is just laughable. Mr Chidanti Malunga as an Engineer himself should be well versed in some of these issues. The read out bid prices at bid opening are not necessarily the final values that come out on the contract. There are arithmetic checks that are made during evaluation and if a bidder made a mistake, those corrections are added/subtracted to his bid. There can also be cases where a bidder failed to price a bill of quantity in his bid, when this is done, the final figure also changes. The… Read more »
Yea sure! but wait a minute. Are your the contractor concerned or from NRWB? You have emptied yourself, my brother. You better wait and see… are your certain there is fraud involved? Could there be any possibility of something like self-enrichment drive? I mean could it be?
Patric Sibale, are you serious? kikkkk wadya iwe!!
Malawi full of thieves…….. kuchokela kwa pulesindenti mpaka the lowest public officer