Defence cross-examines Buluma in fuel deals case

Defence lawyers in the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) fuel import deals case yesterday cross-examined former Nocma deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma on whether President Lazarus Chakwera met one of the potential suppliers.

During cross-examination in the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court, the defence lawyers put it to Buluma that Finergy officials met the President and made a presentation to him and also discussed issues of corporate social responsibility.

In response, Buluma said she was not aware and had no information that Finergy representatives met Chakwera on the fuel deals.

Defence lawyer Bright Theu had asked Buluma if she knew any other person that Finergy met, apart from her, after she had a discussion with one of the accused persons, former presidential aide Chris Chaima Banda who, alongside former Energy minister Newton Kambala and Alliance for Democracy president Enock Chihana are being accused of having influenced Nocma to award a contract to Finergy. The trio was arrested in August 2021.

The lawyer further asked Buluma if Chaima Banda had not mentioned to her that he led the Finergy team to the President to which she responded: “I do not recall him mentioning that.”

But Theu told the witness that Chaima Banda had mentioned to her about leading the Finergy team to Chakwera in the conversation Buluma had recorded. However, Buluma insisted there was no such mention.

Her response prompted the lawyer to read out a transcribed conversation where Chaima Banda indicated to Buluma that he had led the Finergy team to the President.

Theu also put it to Buluma that she had indicated that Kambala had told her that the Finergy team had met the President.

However, Buluma said she did not believe what Chaima Banda  and Kambala had said.

But Theu wondered how the witness could not believe the two when Kambala had also told her the same.

In response, Buluma said Chaima Banda and Kambala were working together, as such, it was hard to believe them.

“This was not the first time for people to say they had been sent by the President,” she said.

Referring to a transcribed conversation between Buluma and Chaima Banda and the actual audio recording, Theu said in the conversation with Buluma, Chaima Banda communicated to Buluma that Finergy representatives met the President and that he read out contents of the presentation that Finergy had made.

Theu also produced a draft of the presentation that Finergy had made on September 29 2020 to the President. In the presentation, Finergy had told the President that they were in the country to buy a bid document.

The lawyer also said Chaima Banda told Buluma that Finergy and the President agreed on building health centres as part of their corporate social responsibility in the health sector.

But Buluma still said she was not convinced that Finergy met the President.

“I am not sure of the contents of the presentation because he did not show me,” she said.

Another defence lawyer Wapona Kita told the court that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seized from Chaima Banda the presentation that Finergy had made to the President and he asked that the ACB should bring the document to the court.

But ACB lawyer Imran Saidi said he never had the opportunity to look at the document and promised to check if the bureau has it.

Chief resident magistrate Madalitso Chimwaza stated that it is a standard procedure for ACB to record what has been seized.

The magistrate, thus, ordered the ACB to make available the presentation that Finergy had made to the President and to bring Buluma’s mobile phone that contains recordings of conversations for the defence to use in cross-examination.

Hearing has been adjourned to this morning for continued cross-examination.