ACB keeps 300MW power investor waiting for a year

ACB keeps 300MW power investor waiting for a year

Delays by the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conclude investigations into alleged irregularities in the procurement of a 300 megawatts (MW) power project has kept the prospective investor waiting for over a year.

Governance and accountability commentators have since faulted ACB for dragging the probe and consequently creating uncertainties to a project of such economic significance.

The graft-busting agency on August 21 2023 issued a restriction order that stopped Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) from proceeding with the power purchase agreement deal with Westland Construction and ACSG Consortium.

The order was valid for 90 days, indicating that the investigation was expected to be concluded by November last year.

But one year down the line, ACB is keeping under wraps findings of the probe while the project has, meanwhile, stalled.

Queried on the status of the investigations, ACB principal public relations officer Egrita Ndala said the bureau has concluded the probe and that “the results will be communicated to the relevant institution”.

On why the investigations have taken so long, she said: “I can’t say I will respond to this [the delay]. [The one] who can answer that is the one who was executing the actual work.”

Reacting in separate interviews to ACB’s delays to conclude investigations, National Advocacy Platform chairperson Benedicto Kondowe, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira and Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) development studies lecturer Andrew Kaponya said the delays create an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Kondowe said the prolonged delay does not only affect the immediate projects, but also sends a negative signal to the broader investment community, thereby stifling future investments and development opportunities in Malawi.

He said: “The ACB must carefully balance its mandate to combat corruption with the need to ensure that its actions do not inadvertently hinder investment and project execution.

Kambwandira, on the other hand, noted that ACB appears to have abandoned its role and is serving the interests of few individuals.

While commending ACB for ensuring that deals are done without irregularities, Kaponya said prolonged investigations “derail progress in projects, frustrates partners and consequently the end beneficiaries”.

Insiders confided that the ACB did not find wrongdoing in the PPA deal Escom signed with Westland Construction and ACSG Consortium. The deal was stopped after ACB received complaints relating to the PPA and that it was not engaged in the multimillion dollar contract.

Currently, Electricity Generation Company has a total installed generation capacity of 441.95MW with 390.55MW from hydro power plants and 51.4MW from standby diesel power plants.

Malawi Government targets to incr ease generation capacity to 1 000MW by 2025.

This is not the first time ACB’s foot-dragging on investigations into alleged corruption on contracts have derailed projects implementation.

For example, Malawi is now playing catch up on a rail project it should have started with Mozambique but in 2021 the ACB took its time to nullify the award of the contract after receiving a complaint that the procurement had irregularities.

While Mozambique completed its stretch from Mutarara to Marka, Malawi is far from completing its 72-kilometre stretch from Marka to Bangula a year after the set deadline.