RA Accused of Rigging Mangochi–Makanjira Tender, Slashing Bid by $7 Million to Fix Outcome
Explosive allegations have rocked the Roads Authority (RA), with insiders accusing officials of actively manipulating the Mangochi–Makanjira Road tender to engineer a preferred winner.
Multiple sources within the ongoing evaluation—currently taking place in Salima—claim that RA officials are tampering with bid documents to force down the price of one contractor, Long Jian Road & Bridge Co., Ltd., from an original $28.9 million to roughly $22 million. The alleged tactic? Inserting and amplifying so-called “clerical errors” to justify drastic downward revisions that would suddenly make the bid appear competitive.
If true, this is not routine procurement—it is calculated interference.
At bid opening, the rankings were clear and competitive. Jiangxi Construction Engineering (Group) Corporation Limited led with $22.55 million, followed by Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group) Co., Ltd. (AFECC) at $22.87 million, and China Railway 20th Bureau Group Co., Ltd. at $22.98 million.
Long Jian’s bid, at nearly $29 million, was never in serious contention.
Now, insiders say that reality is being rewritten behind closed doors.
Other bidders—Anhui Zhenwei Construction Co. Ltd. ($28.48 million), Unik Construction Engineering (PVT) Ltd. ($30.99 million), SMC Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd/Plem Construction Ltd JV ($33.23 million), and Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construção África ($33.13 million)—risk being sidelined not by merit, but by manipulation.
Procurement experts are blunt: adjustments of this magnitude are a red flag.
“Yes, arithmetic corrections happen. But not at a scale that wipes out a $7 million gap and reshuffles the entire ranking. That’s not error—that’s human intervention,” said one specialist familiar with international tender standards.
Sources warn that the altered figures could be formalized within days, effectively locking out legitimate low bidders and clearing the path for a predetermined outcome.
Even more troubling, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is said to be quietly monitoring the process amid growing concern that what is unfolding could amount to full-blown procurement fraud.
This is the heart of the matter: Malawi’s procurement law is not optional. It demands transparency, fairness, and strict adherence to evaluation rules. You cannot “correct” your way into a winner. You cannot rewrite numbers to suit a preferred contractor. And you certainly cannot gamble with public funds as if oversight is a nuisance.
The Roads Authority has yet to respond publicly. That silence is not helping.
What is needed now is immediate intervention: halt the evaluation, subject the process to an independent audit, and publish the findings. Anything less will only deepen suspicion that this tender was compromised from within.
With tens of millions of dollars at stake, this is bigger than one road project. It is a direct test of whether Malawi’s procurement system still has rules—or whether those rules can be bent, stretched, and quietly rewritten when the right interests are at play.
Right now, the signs are not encouraging.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :