House summons Lowe, others to hearing
joint parlimentary committee has summoned sacked Agriculture minister Lobin Lowe and others to talk about various issues of mis-procurement and mismanagement of public resources.
The issues, according to a programme we have seen, are related to botched up fertiliser importation deal in the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) where government lost K750 million to an agent.
The committees for Budget and Finance and Agriculture have summoned managements and boards of National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) and Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to meetings running for 10 days, starting from tomorrow.
According to the programme, the joint committee has also summoned Smolet Kachere, a transporter arrested on October 21 for allegedly diverting and selling in Tanzania K123 million worth of maize meant for NFRA.
Parliament spokesperson Ian Mwenye confirmed in an interview yesterday the meetings are scheduled to take place at Parliament Building in Lilongwe to be co-chaired by chairpersons of the two committees, Gladys Ganda and Sameer Suleman.
Also appearing at the hearing are Secretary to the Treasury McDonald Mafuta Mwale, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Martha Chizuma, Inspector General of Police Merlyne Yolamu, Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) board chair and its chief executive officer.
Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) board chairperson Innocentia Ottober makes her appearance on Tuesday afternoon followed by her deputy Edington Chilapondwa.
The latter is on record to have said PPDA was sidestepped in the fertiliser procurement deal which saw the government losing K750 million to a United Kingdom (UK)-based firm.
Chilapondwa said the law requires such deals to pass through his institution to give a No Objection to the transaction.
ACB is also on record to have said that it did not vet the fertiliser deal.
Ecobank Malawi group CEO Jeremy Awori makes his appearance on Wednesday morning, followed by Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Wilson Banda. In the afternoon, according to the programme, Principal Secretary (PS) for Agriculture Sandram Maweru makes his appearance followed by PS for technical services in the ministry, Medrina Mloza Banda.
Lowe, fired on Tuesday alongside his deputy Madalitso Wirima, appears before the joint committee on Thursday morning and is expected to take questions on circumstances that led to the botched up fertiliser deal and why his ministry did not engage PPDA and ACB.
ACB boss Chizuma makes her appearance Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning, Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba takes her turn. Chizuma is likely to be asked to confirm that the bureau did not vet the fertiliser contract and the role ACB is playing in the whole mis-procurement and transactions that appear fraudulent.
Next week Monday, NFRA board chairperson Denis Kalekeni appears before the joint parliamentary committee followed by his CEO Brenda Kayongo, and the two are expected to be questioned on the K123 million worth of maize that the transporter they engaged is reported to have diverted to Tanzania.
Nation on Sunday established that delivery of the maize, according to our sources at NFRA, was supposed to begin early September, but by September 10 2022, management was made aware of the missing 14 trucks.
But NFRA management reported the matter to police on October 20 2022, more than a month later. National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya confirmed earlier that the case was reported on October 20, adding NFRA was better placed to explain the delayed reporting.
The transporter, Kachere, is also expected to appear before the joint committee next week Tuesday, most likely under police escort if he is still in custody because his bail application before a magistrate court in Lilongwe was rejected as police were still investigating the case.
Immediate former Admarc board chairperson Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi and the institution’s acting general manager appear before the joint committee on November 7 in the afternoon.
The two would be quizzed on an audit report that exposed that K330 million was lost to fraud and abuse masterminded by employees through bogus car insurance and medical cover claims as well as dubious staff loan scheme.
The State produce trader lost the sum largely through the syndicate involving at least 50 employees, some of them in the accounts and audit department.
President Chakwera in his address on Tuesday said his government was fighting through the Attorney General’s office to recover the money paid to the agent in the fertiliser deal.
