MEC vehicles up for grabs as creditors pounce
Six vehicles belonging to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) have been put under the hammer following the commission’s failure to settle debts with three service providers within a stipulated period.
Sheriffs impounded the vehicles on March 15 this year after three companies— Universal Trading Company, Platinum Solutions and Transworld Radio—dragged the electoral body to court.
Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said in an interview on Wednesday the sheriffs were proceeding with the auction of the six runner vehicles because MEC had failed to clear the debts mostly emanating from the 2014 Tripartite Elections.
“After the court issued an order for sheriffs to impound the vehicles, MEC was given a time frame to settle the debts. But MEC has not done that to date so they [Sheriffs] are now proceeding with the public auction sale of the six vehicles,” he said.
Mvula said prospective bidders are expected to view the vehicles this morning at the High Court of Malawi and Trust Auctioneers and Estate Agents compound in Blantyre with the actual auctioning taking place on Friday.
The vehicles include three 10-tonne Nissan UD Van vehicles registration BQ 901, BQ 902 and BQ 892, a Toyota Caravan minibus registration BP 9523 and two Nissan Patrols registration BP 9529 and BP 9525.
The High Court ordered the commission towards the end of last year to pay a total of K90 million (about $134 658) in services rendered by the three organisations. However, MEC failed to comply with the order, prompting the court to issue a warrant of execution.
MEC owes Universal Trading Company about K80 million (about $119 696), Platinum Solutions about K9.9 million (about $14 812) while Transworld Radio is owed about K1 million (about $1 496).
MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said in an interview yesterday evening they were aware of the auction of their vehicles and were working on the way forward.
“It is true we owe those firms the money, but we had requested Treasury to bail us out. That has not happened yet because we are still engaged in talks with government and those discussions have not been concluded,” explained Mwafulirwa. n
