Financially-struggling Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has cancelled procurement for 20 prospective contracts, citing budget constraints.
But the decision has raised queries on how an entity would call for tenders without the financial muscle.
On the other hand, consumers have expressed fears that the decision could lead to a compromise in service delivery as some of the items were meant to improve water supply.
In a notice published in The Nation on March 24 2026, BWB announced the cancellation of planned procurement for 20 activities, including motor vehicles, medical drugs and reagents, electrical actuator, flanges, information and communications technology (ICT) equipment and accessories as well as steel fittings, couplings and fire hydrants.
The list also included hardware items and accessories, motor windings, galvanised iron pipes, UPVC pipes, high head multistage pump spare parts, 700 AMPS ETN business fuses, submersible slurry sand pumps and vesconite materials as well as solid granular chlorine, liquefied chlorine gas, aluminium sulphate and soda gas.
heightened transparency.
| Nation
Responding to The Nation questionnaire on the issue, BWB spokesperson Evelyn Khonje said the procurements were for BWB general activities and were cancelled because of budgetary constraints.
Without stating the actual totals for the cancelled activities and how the entity called for tenders yet it did not have enough resources, she said some of the cancelled activities have been factored into the board’s 2026/27 budget set to roll out on April 1.
In a written response, Khonje said: “There are no implications to the board. By the way, the costs of some goods have remained constant with some even decreasing.
“The next step is to tender for some of the activities whilst for others the scope and specifications will be redefined where necessary e.g. for legal services, we will be recruiting a legal manager instead of hiring a law firm.”
But a source within the water supply system said the listed materials cost in excess of K2 billion.
In an interview yesterday, Centre for Social Transparency and Accountability executive director Willy Kambwandira said the decision to cancel procurement activities is both concerning and raises legitimate red flags.
He said: “While fiscal discipline in times of financial stress is expected, abrupt large scale cancellations particularly in an institution already associated with past governance and financial management controversies inevitably invite suspicion about the integrity of the procurement process itself.
“The cancellation demands heightened transparency as there is a real risk that such cancellations could be used to mask misprocurement irregularities, misallocation of resources or strategic withdrawal from contracts that may have been improperly awarded.”
Centre for Social Concern economic governance officer Agness Nyirongo, in a separate interview, noted that expanding and modernising water supply systems requires significant capital, which may involve partnerships with development partners, concessional loans and increased public investment.
She said when public utilities operate at a deficit, their ability to invest in infrastructure, maintain existing systems and expand service delivery tends to become severely constrained.
“Consumers may experience more frequent water supply interruptions, delayed maintenance of damaged pipelines, and limited expansion of services to underserved communities,” said Nyirongo.
Mzuzu-based socio-economic pundit Isaac Cheke Ziba said in practical terms, deferred maintenance eventually will increase system losses, worsen service interruptions and heighten operational inefficiency.
He said the decision preserves short-term cash flow at the expense of long-term operational stability, fearing that consumers are likely to experience increased and noticeable decline in service quality.
Such approaches, he said, include linking procurement strictly to secured funding, prioritising critical investments, strengthening financial forecasting and phased procurement.
In his reaction, Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito said BWB has been struggling for a long time and is surviving on subventions from government.
“Delivery of services have gone down to zero and it does not matter how much tariff increases they can be given! Consumers should forget about getting any better services,” he said.
The Malawi Government Economic Report 2026 shows that between 2024 and March 2026, net losses for BWB declined sharply from a deficit of K37.8 billion in 2024 to K10.2 billion in 2025.
