AG to go after oil deal gainers
Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda says his office is studying a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ruling in the United Kingdom (UK) to identify Malawian beneficiaries of bribes in a 2012 oil deal.
In a written response to an enquiry by The Nation on Tuesday on the guilty verdict on the UK firm and subsequent monetary awards to countries, including Malawi, he said his team will carefully study the ruling and the court documents.
Chakaka Nyirenda said: “We will ultimately disgorge any gain any official might have personally realised from the deal. I will be finding more on the deal, but I understand such deals are deliberately made complex to achieve their ill-intentions.”
The UK court has awarded Malawi 978 205 British pounds (about K1.1 billion at the current exchange rate) for the harm caused to the country through bribes made to unnamed Malawi Government officials.
In its ruling made last Thursday, the UK court found that Glencore Energy UK Ltd, using its agents, systematically gave bribes to government officials in Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan to seal crude oil deals. In total, the seven countries will receive the award of 274 403 087 British pounds (about K331 trillion).
In Malawi, the deal was sealed in 2012 under the administration of Joyce Banda. But the transaction was started by the Bingu wa Mutharika administration.
Banda, who had ascended to the presidency in line with constitutional order following Bingu’s death in April 2012, could not be reached on her mobile yesterday and a questionnaire sent through WhatsApp was yet to be responded to by press time at 9pm.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Peter Fraser of Southwark Crown Court said Glencore was charged on indictment with seven counts under the Bribery Act of the UK and the company pleaded guilty on all the counts on June 21 2022.
In the case of Malawi, the judge said two brothers of Malawi’s Honorary Consul-General in Nigeria participated in the transactions. This was in reference to Michael Anyiam-Osigwe, whom Banda had appointed as Malawi’s Honorary Consul-General to Nigeria.
Banda, in an executive order she signed on May 3 2012, appointed Anyiam-Osigwe as an attorney to oversee the deal, giving him authority to sign the multimillion dollar crude oil deal on behalf of Malawi.
The executive order stated that Malawi was giving the attorney powers to sign, execute and deliver a term of crude oil sales contract with the State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abuja, for 45 000 barrels per day under the Laws of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
In April 2013, our sister newspaper, the Weekend Nation reported that this process was hurried as it had happened before involving relevant government technocrats in Malawi.
The paper further reported that the State House had dragged the country into a crude oil contract with the Nigerian firm that could be costly for the already troubled economy.
At issue was the manner in which State House handled the contract given that this was a highly technical matter; the lack of a clear cost-benefit analysis for Malawi in the deal and the legal pitfalls the government could find itself in at the closure of the one-year contract.
The government-to-government deal, signed between the Republic of Malawi and NNPC on May 16 2012, expired on April 30 2013.
