The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday paraded its seventh witness in the case where the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) board is accused of flouting procurement procedures in a K4.6 billion contract in 2016.
Standing in the witness box, former Escom director of administration and company secretary Everson Sitolo told the High Court of Malawi Financial Crimes Division in Blantyre that Escom’s board at the time authorised the payment of goods worth about K4.6 billion that were supplied without any contract or local purchase order (LPO).
He said then board chairperson Jean Mathanga and her team did not explain why they authorised such payment.
Sitolo, a lawyer, also told the court that former Escom director of finance Betty Mahuka, who already testified in court, was the first person to raise a red flag on the misprocurement.
During cross-examination, Fostino Maele, one of the lawyers representing Mathanga, asked Sitolo whether the said special minutes can be trusted by the court.
In response, the witness said the special minutes should be trusted.
Taking his turn, lawyer Chimwemwe Kalua, representing former Escom chief executive officer John Kandulu, asked Sitolo if he remembers Kandulu being mentioned.
Responded Sitolo: “The second accused person was not among the people mentioned in the wrong doing. And I don’t know if he [Kandulu] benefitted in any way.”
