PAC freezes on East Bridge deal

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has called off an inquiry into the controversial fertiliser deal between Malawi Government and a purported Romanian firm, East Bridge, saying it has gathered the information it needed.

The development comes after PAC made a buzz about the inquiry.

The committee had prescribed seven business days from September 12 to 21 for the inquiry only to announce its cancellation after holding a meeting in camera at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.

PAC had summoned Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda and officials from the Government Contracting Unit, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and Malawi Law Society (MLS) as part of the investigations.

But in an interview yesterday, PAC chairpeson Mark Botomani said after going through the documents submitted by the stakeholders, they did not find any proof that government spent money on the deal.

He said: “We are not proceeding with inquiry because we were more concerned with any possible expenditure that may have been made.

“But we have found that there was no any expenditure that was made. Public resources, public money was not used in this particular deal.”

In the deal, East Bridge was expected to supply 300 000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser to Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) under a barter arrangement where the supplier would get assorted farm produce, including soya bean, groundnuts, rice, pigeon peas, sorghum, maize, sugar and cotton.

However, government suspended the deal and withdrew its sovereign guarantee after facing resistance from various stakeholders, including MLS. The law society further recommended that the issue be investigated.

The East Bridge fertiliser deal was faulted for flouting procurement processes and lacking transparency, which would also have resulted in Malawi paying more for the fertiliser although it was a commodity exchange arrangement.

PAC was scheduled to start meeting the stakeholders for the inquiry yesterday starting with the AG. However, the AG did not show up for the meeting yesterday.

On the last-minute cancellation, Botomani said Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale already announced that the fertiliser deal had been suspended and that the Minister of Finance also indicated that the sovereign guarantee that had been issued had been withdrawn.

He said the committee was convinced with submissions that there was no expenditure, adding the committee does not expect the AG to lie.

Meanwhile, MLS, which earlier wrote the AG to look into the matter, has expressed dissatisfaction with the discontinuation of the parliamentary inquiry.

In a brief written response yesterday, MLS president Patrick Mpaka said the reason for the discontinuation of the inquiry is not satisfactory given the scope of the issues.

He called on PAC to provide further details on its decision to help people understand how it has arrived at such a decision.

Said Mpaka: “Our position has always been, this deal needs a thorough inquiry. Until this latest decision, PAC appeared to be on the right path to holding the Executive authorities involved accountable and protect public interest on this deal.”

In a separate interview, governance commentator Moses Mkandawire also expressed disappointment on the manner PAC called off the inquiry.

On July 4 2023, MLS wrote the AG, Director of Public Prosecutions and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to look into the deal.