What is the job the ODPP?

I expect my good ole friend Chimwemwe Nyirenda, Multichoice marketing manager and many more friends at Multichoice to be furious with me about what I am about to say here. But don’t lose your cool yet guys until you get to the last dot. And readers may be wondering what the connection is between ODPP and Multichoice. It’s Escom.

Multichoice is probably one of the very few firms in the country which are not adversely affected by the long power outages (I could be wrong) for reasons I will narrate just now. If you are a Multichoice client and subscribes to Dstv, you probably know what I want say. You don’t pay as per viewing. Unlike for water and electricity, for which you pay for what you use, with Multichoice, whether there is power outage or not you pay the same full bill for being their client.

Of course, I know it is not Multichoice’s problem. But by virtue of being in Malawi, I want my good friends at Multichoice to seriously consider introducing a pay as per view billing system in view of the long power outages the country is experiencing. People are not getting value for their money. If you have a genset, well and fine. But how many Multichoice clients have gensets? It is totally unfair for someone to part with K65 000 for the Premium bouquet (no add-ons) or whatever and only have power well into the night when you—the majority of the people—are supposed to be asleep. In short, why bill customers for a service they don’t use?

Now on a more furious note. Escom is always in the news for bad reasons. If it is not for failing to generate and supply power to the 10 percent of Malawians connected to the national grid, it is about some people trying to reap from it. One Jean Mathanga is doubling as Escom chairperson and Malawi Electoral Commission member which is against the electoral law. She is not doing charity work there.

Just a week ago, my good ole boss forgot that he is at the helm of the power utility body and was all over fuming at the inefficiency of the organisation he is supposed to have revolutionized by virtue of being its political leader. But no hard feelings Mr. Bright Msaka, SC. I agree with you 100 percent Escom has failed Malawians.

And this week as news filtered that the organisation’s finance director has quit her job for being pressured to authorise alleged dubious payments which was against her conscience, many things flooded my mind. If this is true, I say bravo Madam Bettie Mahuka for that. That is the way to go. I dare say if this country only had a few more people in senior decision-making positions who refuse to betray their consciences, I am sure Malawi would have been somewhere else.

Truth be told, Escom’s inefficiency is because it has been abused, not so much by its corporate management as by its political masters. It is an open secret the organisation spends billions of kwacha to pay for equipment it hardly needs. And then we expect it to perform! We are kidding!

Which brings me to the malfeasance of the Office of the Director of Public Procurements (ODPP). Everyone who wants to fleece Escom (and many other public organisations) hides behind the authority of this office to the point it has become one of the most abused institutions in the country. The ODPP is made to issue no objection authorisations for procurements that ought to be competed for. The only right qualification you need to have to get a no objection from this organisation is the right political connection. It is high time the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)—I wish it had teeth—zeroed in on this organisation and objectively and professionally started scrutinising the thousands of no objection authorisations it issues to political masters.

By the way, the ODPP is also one of the most secretive MDAs in the country where you—I mean the media—never gets any sensible information about how contracts are awarded. It has now completely lost its moral spine to provide the necessary scrutiny to requests for no objection authorisations. As long as you get a no objection from the ODPP you are viewed as innocent even if the contract you are given is supposed to be competitive. There is so much rot at this institution. These are some of the issues the Public Sector Reform (PSR) ought to change if Malawi is to develop.

In case someone is wondering what I am up to, just look at the list of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) suppliers for this year. All those firms got a no objection from ODPP including firms whose core business is supplying and repairing computers. And there was no tendering process. Any wonder development partners don’t want to have anything to do with Fisp?  n