Government, Atupele disown contract with India company

There is a jigsaw puzzle at the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (EP&D) which appears like only former minister Atupele Muluzi can solve.
At issue is a contract purportedly signed by the UDF torch-bearer in the 2014 elections on behalf of the Malawi Government and an Indian woman named Saritha Likkakula who signed on behalf of Sai Balaji Enterprise worth 137 000 euros (about K72 million at the current exchange rate.)
Saritha is currently chasing for payment from the ministry but sources there say she is finding it tough because the contract was between Muluzi and herself and not the Malawi Government.
Meanwhile, the ministry says the deal is illegal because the former minister side-stepped controlling officers in signing the contract.
In an interview, Saritha was unsettled and pleaded “please don’t make news out of this.”
“We are here to help Malawi by bringing more investors from India into the agricultural industry. I am currently in trouble with my bosses and I can’t be paid my salary because of this payment,” she said.
But confronted with the allegations, Muluzi denied knowledge or existence of a contract between himself and the Indian media company.
“Tell them to show you the contract,” he said.
But documents in our possession show that Muluzi and Saritha put pen to paper on June 12 2012, endorsing a contract for Sai Balaji Enterprise to do “a report on Malawi.”
The job was to be completed by July 12 2012 and payment would be made before August 30 2012.
On August 26 2013, Saritha wrote Principal Secretary for EP&D pleading for her payment, insinuating that change of leadership at the ministry had affected their payment.
By then, Muluzi had resigned as minister and was replaced by Goodall Gondwe. Ralph Jooma later replaced Gondwe after the latter had resigned.
“We had received instructions from the government that there was a need to create an economic report on Malawi. Urgent decision had been made to bring in foreign investors from all over the world to promote mining, agriculture industry and many other sectors.
“Hence, I, Saritha Likkakula, was here for that requested purpose. We had signed an advertising contract and interviewed Mr. Atupele Muluzi for the editorial section of the report. We have fulfilled the requirement and completed our job and made a complete report and submitted it to the government. We were promised to be paid by August 17th 2012 so we left the country,” she wrote.
According to the letter, the changes at the ministry created problems that affected the processing of payment for the contract.
“For this reason, I beg you to make us the necessary payment as soon as possible before we incur further expenses,” said Saritha.
The 137 000 euros was meant, according to her, to produce a one-page report on Malawi expected to be published in Le Monde, a popular French newspaper.
According to the contract, the report would show a positive image of the country. The report consisted of two parts—editorial and advertising—but only the editorial part is attached to the contract for payment.
The agreement was titled “agreement and contract between Sai Balaji Enterprise and Minister of Economic Planning and Development Mr. Atupele Muluzi, MP.”
The contract we have seen shows Muluzi endorsing: “I, Mr. Atupele Muluzi, hereby agree and come in contract with Sai Balaji Enterprise which would be honoured by 30th August, 2012.”
In an interview yesterday, Principal Secretary for EP&D Ted Sitima-wina described the contract as illegal.
“As controlling officer, I should have had knowledge of such a contract but I didn’t. It’s not supposed to happen like that,” said Sitima-wina.
He also disclosed that since the matter concerned a former minister, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) was handling it.
According to Sitimawina, the Ministry of Justice has also taken up the matter because the contract has been deemed illegal.
Spokespersons for OPC and the Ministry of Justice were unavailable for comment.