Ex-Nchalo Greenbelt directors arrested for K2.6bn
Fiscal Police in Blantyre on Tuesday night arrested three former employees of Nchalo Greenbelt Limited for allegedly misappropriating K2.6 billion.
National Police deputy spokesperson Harry Namwaza identified the three as Imran Malidadi, 48, from Masinde Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Malemia in Zomba District, who was working as human resources and administration manager, Richard Nkhwazi, 46, from Bonje Village, T/A Wasambo in Karonga District, who was general manager and Tozer Khonje, 77, from Nthunga Village, T/A Mwamlowe in Rumphi District.
In an interview yesterday, he said Fiscal Police instituted investigations last December against the directors, some employees and the company’s suppliers of goods and services.
Said Namwaza: “Facts show that Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation [Admarc] entered into an agreement with NGBL to pre-finance them to produce cotton. In the agreement, Admarc was to buy and process the cotton at their ginneries and export it.
“To carry out this project, Admarc obtained a loan from Export Development Fund [EDF] and disbursed it to NGBL.”
However, he said between 2018 and 2021, a total amount of K2. 5 billion was disbursed from EDF to NGBL from Admarc but the project did not yield the intended results.
Said Namwaza: “This prompted the Greenbelt Authority [GBA] board to request for a forensic audit which revealed many fraudulent transactions and dubious payments to the directors, some employees and suppliers.
“Out of the K2 536 584 699 disbursed to NGBL, only K92 247 650 worth of cotton was delivered to Admarc.
“Following police investigations, it shows that NGBL allegedly diverted the funds for a different purpose such as procurement of vehicles and machinery.”
In a separate interview, GBA board chairperson Wester Kosamu said their role was to hire forensic auditors from the National Audit Office after seeing that about K2.6 billion was not accounted for by their predecessors.
He said: “What is happening is the responsibility of other offices like the police and the court. Our job was only to trace how things were happening and as the matter is going to court, we have nothing to comment.”
Kosamu thanked President Lazarus Chakwera who, through the Presidential Delivery Unit, gave GBA permission to go ahead with Nyamithambo Irrigation Scheme project (Chikwawa) where he bailed out NGBL by paying K100 million arrears to their workers.
The three will answer six charges, including negligence by a public officer, fraud, contravening procurement Act and money laundering.
