Hiwa released on bail

Former Roads Authority (RA) chief executive officer, Trevor Hiwa who was arrested on Tuesday on corruption charges, has been released on bail after he appeared before the Lilongwe Senior Magistrate’s Court.

Hiwa has been charged on three counts before being granted bail. He has been charged with dealing in contracts and failing to declare interest in the procurement process contrary to section 25(d) (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act and section 19(1) of the Public Procurement Act.

The bail has been granted after the accused agreed to pay K200,000 cash and produce two non-cash sureties at K500,000 each including Gertrude  Hiwa,  wife to the accused and commissioner for the Malawi Law Commission.

A statement released yesterday by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said Hiwa’s arrest follows an allegation the bureau received against him in April last year.

He is accused of awarding a K217 million (about $3030 823) World Bank contract to his company Infracon Limited to design and supervise various road construction projects in the Central and Southern regions bypassing the RA’s Internal Procurement Committee(IPC) and without declaring interest.

“The Anti-Corruption Bureau instituted investigations which established that Engineer Trevor Hiwa recommended Infracon Limited to be awarded the above mentioned contract. He said that Infracon had
less workload as compared to other consultants. The truth of the matter was that no consultant was contacted to find out if they were free to undertake this contract,” the statement reads in part.