On Mombera fraud ACB has the simplest of jobs

Interesting things have always been happening about the Mombera University whose name has now changed to Inkosi ya Makhosi M’mbelwa University.

The university was first mooted by president Bingu wa Mutharika. He envisioned it to be one of five universities he wanted government to establish across the country as one way of achieving equitable provision of higher education in the country. But Bingu died four years later on April 5 [officially on April 7 2012]. At the time of his death, of all the proposed institutions of higher learning, Bingu had only established the Malawi University of Science and Technology in Thyolo.

The idea of establishing the university gained currency again on March 23 2015 when the then president Peter Mutharika even laid a foundation stone on the project’s site in Mzimba. But three years later, on June 16 2018, during the 19th congregation of Mzuzu University, disputing claims that the university project was a white elephant, Mutharika said there was progress towards construction of the facility.

“We have started with the road network and soon we will move to the construction of the actual university buildings,” he assured the nation.

Said Mutharika: “Some people are saying the North is neglected. I’m very surprised. I’m really surprised. Mombera University, by the end of this month, we will start constructing the buildings, the administration block, lecture rooms and others.”

The then minister of Education Bright Msaka had also assured Parliament at that time that a contractor had been identified and was on site working on the K72 billion project.

Then, on March 8 2019, the then minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe [now late] told The Nation in an interview that government had set aside K5 billion for the construction of the university.

But Mutharika left office in June 2020 with no single building at the site constructed. So, where did the K5 billion go?

On February 18 this year, President Lazarus Chakwera told Parliament in his State of the Nation Address that his administration will commence construction of the university during the 2023/24 fiscal year. He said apart from bringing a new face to Mzimba and its neighbouring districts of Rumphi, Nkhata Bay, Karonga and Kasungu, the university will create space for more students to attain tertiary education.

It has since transpired that K2.5 billion for Mombera University project was abused during the previous administration and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is probing this. The bureau received an investigative audit report from the Auditor General. The graft-busting body has taken that path after analysing the report’s findings and recommendations.

I am pretty sure it is everyone’s expectation that ACB will expedite its investigations on the issue so that truth is known and justice prevails.

When Mutharika assured the nation in June 2018 that construction of buildings would commence at the end of that month, he was not just bluffing. He knew what he was saying, that money had been made available for the project.

The discrepancy in the amount of money—K2.5 billion—that was spent on the project and the actual work that was done on the site is a mockery on our fledgling democracy and spits into our faces. Was this money spent on the campaign? I leave it to ACB to do its job without fear or favour. 

Respect to the Human Rights Defenders Coalition as whistleblowers, who first alerted ACB about the suspected malfeasance, this issue would not have come to light. This is how many government projects have failed to take off.