Reports reaching this publication revealed that Daud Sajid Sultan was on Wednesday, night, March 30, 2022 caught drank while buying illicit drugs at Sana compound, Area 9 in the capital Lilongwe.
According to sources at the facility, police caught Daud Sajid Sultan buying drugs from dealer Rayan Ridwan Nathanie.
Upon caught, both Sajid and Nathanie were locked up by the police who were letter released after negotiation to avoid public shame. Daud Sajid Sultan is a son to a big drug dealer in town.
Sajid father owns Crown hotel at Area 3, near Maula filling station in the capital Lilongwe Daudi was not available for comment on the matter on several attempt.
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), has expressed disappointment over Tonse Alliance administration’s ongoing careless plunder of public resources sugar-coated in ‘crop inspection and review of implementation of Public Sector Reforms’.
President Lazarus Chakwera and the Vice-President Saulos Chilima are hardly seen in office instead are always on the road inspecting various projects which CDEDI alleges that each day blows about MK300 million, a situation which has been described as pathetic considering the current situation affecting the poor masses.
In a press release made available to this publication and signed by CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa, says it is disheartening to note that the President alone is spending over MWK300 million visiting people that can hardly afford a meal a day due to rising of cost of living.
“It beats human imagination, therefore, to note that the President, fresh from attending a conference for poor countries, went straight into a spending spree of the very scarce resources. This is a total mockery of the glaring poverty that is dehumanising Malawians,” says Namiwa in a statement.
On Chakwera’s arguement that the crop inspection is a learning process for future Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) programme, Namiwa feels that is an open secret that the 2021/2022 AIP is a total mess.
“What is it then that the President would like to see or hear from the people which he doesnt know already? Where is the morality of assembling a whole Executive motorcade to visit people whose suffering is already known, and are helplessly waiting for solutions and not lectures that leave them hopeless,” he queries.
CDEDI has since challenged President Chakwera and his Vice-President to stop the so called needless local travels, and stay in the office to devise mechanisms to cushion the masses from the imminent fuel increase that will worsen the suffering of the people due to the global economic turmoil.
Namiwa says is sad that while leaders elsewhere that care about their people are busy formulating packages to protect their economies and cushion the masses from the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, in Malawi is different scenario whereby leaders are busy competing on plundering the public purse through allowances for themselves and teams of public officers accompanying them.
“Closer home, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has announced a package to protect his people from the external shocks as a result of the war in Ukraine, but here in Malawi the Tonse Alliance government is shamelessly making attempts to use the same war to cover up its cluelessness,” he narrates.
Namiwa has therefore reminded President Chakwera and his government that the Russia-Ukraine war is a month old, while the increase in the cost of living is as old as the Tonse Alliance government itself.
The CSO leader has recommended Presidency to immediately come up with a clear policy to cushion the masses from the imminent fuel increase that will unfortunately trigger yet another increase in the cost of living.
Namiwa has also seen it timely to ask President and his Cabinet to consider cut their tax-free salaries by half as a sign of sharing the pain with the masses that can no longer afford a decent meal a day.
Above all, he has demanded Presidency to immediately stop the global trotting and local travels.
“Malawi envoys should represent the country during all the international events while the rest should be attended virtually, until the country’s economy is fixed to the satisfaction of the majority of Malawians and that the President should trim his Cabinet from 32 to 20; and also chop his crowd of advisers from 22 to 5,” he suggests.
As a sign that Malawians have not forgotten campaign promises made prior to the court-sanctioned fresh presidential elections on June 23, 2020, President Chakwera was recently bood in Blantyre as a sign of dissatisfaction with his style of leadership.
The Government of Malawi and the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) on Tuesday signed an addendum to the existing Regional Liquidity Support Facility (RLSF) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The Government of Malawi was represented by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Energy, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and PML.
Minister of Finance & Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe said the government was pleased to extend the successful partnership with ATI to include PML.
“The support received from ATI via the RLSF has been helpful in supporting the government’s objectives of attracting additional investments in the energy sector with the view of ensuring that Malawi has sufficient electricity to meet growing domestic and commercial demand,” he said.
ATI’s Senior Underwriter Pizzaro Lukhanda said Malawihas been the greatest beneficiary of our RLSF initiative.
“Thanks to Malawi’s investor friendly policies, improved regulations and frameworks that have allowed increased private sector investments and growth in its power sector. Having already supported three solar projects within the country, we look forward to building on this early success and exploring additional areas of cooperation between ATI and the Government of Malawi,” he said.
The addendum will allow Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that enter into Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with PML to benefit from RLSF cover. Since signing the original RLSF MoU with the Government of Malawi on 30 November 2018, ATI has provided instrumental guarantees in support of three projects in Malawi: the Nkhotakota, Salima and Golomoti solar power plants, enabling these projects, with a combined installed capacity of 101 MW, to achieve financial close.
The signing of the addendum comes on the heels of improvements to the RLSF structure, which will take effect under Phase 2 of RLSF, recently announced by ATI and its partners. Under Phase 1, ATI and KfW provided collateral to Absa South Africa which in turn issued Standby Letters of Credit (SBLCs) for the benefit of IPPs – the SBLCs can be drawn by the IPPs following any delayed payments by the state-owned offtakers, serving as a key form of payment security. The new product structure, which will no longer involve an LC issuing bank, will allow IPPs to benefit from ATI’s positive credit rating of A/ A3 (S&P & Moody’s, respectively). In addition, the new RLSF contracts to be signed between ATI and the IPPs will be simpler – cutting the existing turnaround times, and in turn reducing the cost of RLSF cover as any fees currently charged by the LC issuing bank will no longer be applied.
RLSF, a joint initiative of the ATI, KfW Development Bank and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), is a guarantee instrument designed to address the short-term liquidity risks faced by renewable energy IPPs that sell electricity to state owned power utilities across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Furthermore, the RLSF MoU allows ATI to collect information on the payment behavior of power utilities. The information collected is then recorded and can be accessed via the Transparency Tool, a digital platform launched by ATI in 2019, by participating IPPs. The first external report from the Transparency Tool was published in 2021, showing that ESCOM was meeting its payment obligations to the country’s sole IPP on time.
Currently, seven of ATI’s member countries have signed the MoU and can benefit from RLSF: Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, with the expectation that more of ATI’s twenty member countries will sign up.
ATI was founded in 2001 by African States to cover trade and investment risks of companies doing business in Africa. ATI predominantly provides Political Risk, Credit Insurance and, Surety Insurance. In 2020, ATI closed the year with a gross exposure of US$6.3 billion and a net profit of US$39.4 million, owing to a strong demand for ATI’s insurance solutions from the international financial sector and from African governments. Since inception, ATI has supported US$70 billion worth of investments and trade into Africa. For over a decade, ATI has maintained an ‘A/Stable’ rating for Financial Strength and Counterparty Credit by Standard & Poor’s, and in 2019, ATI obtained an A3/Stable rating from Moody’s.
ATI and the German Development Bank, KfW, with financing from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), launched the RLSF in 2017. The Facility was created to help tackle climate change and attract investments by supporting renewable energy projects in ATI’s member countries. RLSF has an initial capacity of EUR 63.2 million and it supports small and mid-scale renewable energy projects with an installed capacity of up to 50 MW (and in exceptional cases up to 100 MW) by protecting the developers against the risk of delayed payments by public off-takers; in turn improving project bankability and ensuring that more projects reach financial close.
Nkhunga–Collaboration is key in fighting the adverse effects of climate change–Photo by Watipaso Mzungu
ShareWORLD Open University of Malawi (SOUM) says collaboration between institutions of higher learning and communities in tree-planting initiatives is crucial in Malawi’s aspiration to reverse deforestation and adverse effects of climate change.
SOUM Head of the Department of Conservation and Rural Development, William Nkhunga, emphasized that a partnership between universities and communities would enable the two parties to leverage their expertise and make significant advancements in the fight against the climate crisis.
Nkhunga made the remarks in Chakwawa Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalumbu in Lilongwe when the university led community members in planting 1, 000 trees.
Studies have shown that forested land in Malawi continues to face undue pressure due to high population growth, rising consumption rates for firewood, timber and non-timber products, unsustainable harvesting and economic development policies that promote expansion agriculture into marginal lands.
Nyasulu planting a tree
As a consequence, deforestation has increased at an alarming rate while the continued loss of forests continues to not only threaten livelihoods, but also the environment.
Nkhunga therefore said collaborative forest rehabilitation efforts are the right way to address the problem.
“But that cannot be done by governments and the private sector alone. School-based reforestation initiatives are an important way for students, teachers, and communities to make tangible contributions to climate change mitigation efforts,” he said.
Nkhunga announced that SOUM has since adopted Chakwawa Village as a ground for learning practical skills for students in Conservation and Rural Development. He said this entails that students will be regularly planting trees and monitoring their growth.
Mwatibu leading by example by planting a tree
“We believe this will significantly contribute towards reforestation initiative in this area,” he narrated.
The National Coordinator of the National Youth Network on Climate Change (NYNCC), Dominic Nyasulu, said institutions of higher learning have a critical role in mobilizing students and communities in addressing impacts of climate change in the country.
Nyasulu, who was the Guest of Honour at the event, therefore commended SOUM for partnering with the people of Chakwawa Village in the tree-planting exercise.
Senior Group Village Head (SGVH) Mwatibu thanked the university for choosing his area.
“This partnership will benefit us more than they will benefit from it. So, we are very happy and we pledge our commitment to working with them,” said Mwatibu.
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), has today commenced work on inspection of contracts awarded to contractors for various projects at the Roads Authority (RA).
CDEDI was given a positive nod by RA acting Chief Executive Officer, Engineer Francis Dimu.
Initially, in its letter to RA dated February 28, 2022, for interest of transparency and accountability sake, CDEDI demanded the disclosure of contractual agreements for Jenda-Edingeni, Karonga -Songwe, Mzimba-Mzarangwe, Kapiri-Mkanda, Ntchisi -Malomo, Kenyatta Drive & Sharrar Street not to mention of Ntcheu-Tsangano, Nsanje -Marka and Nsanama -Nayuchi roads.
The human rights organisation came flat on its watchdog role as a call for the country to raise the standards of public infrastructure, and fight the nauseating deep-rooted corruption entrenched in the construction industry.
Meanwhile CDEDI Executive Director, Sylvester Namiwa has promised that his organisation will in due course update the members of the public on the outcome of the documentation exercise currently underway at RA offices in Lilongwe.
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Story by a concerned bidder Yamikani Nicholas Kachingwe
KACHINGWE: Concerned bidder
The Department of Disaster Management(DoDMA) an institution under the office of the President(OPC) advertised several tenders/bids on 3rd August 2021,closing date was 1st September,2021.
●They clearly indicated their targeting recognised MSME’S who are registered at ministry of trade,they further clarified that preference will be given to Indigenous Malawians.
● The bid validity was 120 days( 4 Months).
● Samples were requested as a mandatory requirement for specific items upon submission of bid document.
● They further assured us that evaluated results shall be announced publicly through ‘notification of intention to award contract’ published in leading newspapers and individual email addresses.
Our company participated in two tenders,namely;
(1) Various Relief Items: 090/IPDC/DoDMA/2021-22/07 (2) Working Materials: 090/IPDC/DoDMA/2021-22/07.
My grievances against the Internal Procurement and Disposal Committee (IPDC) of DoDMA among many are that i feel they ignored to abide by their own requirements and mandate and as well overlooking the rule of law by obstructing fair and just procurement practices to propel the MSME Order gazzeted a year ago.
After the elapse of bid validity,the IPDC didn’t communicate to any participating bidder(maybe they did) but for a fact i know they didn’t communicate to us on why the results were delayed or the reasons thereof or to seek extension of bid validity.
I took it upon myself to investigate this matter thoroughly and i was shocked to learn that The IPDC has now started issuing contracts to their “assumed” evaluated suppliers behind doors.
On 28th March,2022. I booked an appointment with the Procurement officer Madam Kezzia Mkandi,she agreed to meet me with her colleagues at 15H30(3:30pm) in their procurement department office, Capital Hill.
I enquired about the results for both tenders. She responded that the Working Materials tender results are currently on hold until further notice but the relief item tender results were out and they have identified their successful bidders and my bid was not successful. Due to my failure to comply to Technical Specifications. Names of successful companies were not revealed.
In which i appealed to her to reveal the said failure. She replied i only indicated my compliance with a picture/image of the item without any description.
I was shocked to learn about this as according to their bid document it was indicated that we may put a drawing or an image or literature to indicate our compliance. Besides that we were requested to attach samples for the specific items we were bidding for,which i did. Am flabbergasted to learn that i did not complied yet physical samples were submitted for their reference.
Madam Kezzia in front of her colleagues(Madam Jackie and Mr Ngayiye) who formed a forum,said that PPDA told them during their evaluation process to ignore and to not use the samples as reference. In short the samples were disregarded and remained unused in their warehouse behind Admarc Depot along Chilambula road. A fact which she failed to substantiate that truly PPDA advised so.
On the issue of not publishing the evaluated bid results,her response was that they got a waiver from PPDA due to Cyclone Anna,as it was a matter of urgency,strangely during the momentum of the natural disaster,contracts were not awarded. They have started awarding the contracts on this very same day we held the meeting.
Observations
• DoDMA’s IPDC wasted all bidder’s time and resources used in purchasing samples while they knew for gospel truth they won’t be used in their evaluation process,which is not only misleading but a cause of concern. As all samples in hundreds are just gathering dust at their warehouse. I parted ways with not less than K300,000. And yet it was put to waste. Am yet to collect my samples and see their state of condition. Every tambala i spen on them shall be refunded in full. If any are in bad shape.
• DoDMA’s IPDC failed to finalize within their bid validity and failed to inform bidders,they went further to seek a waiver from PPDA not to publish results and award contracts during Cyclone Anna but that too was not fulfiled. They failed to communicate to unsuccessful bidders as well. This just shows either it was deliberate for the sole purpose of corrupt activities or just pure incompetence.
• Findings from my investigation are alleging that 35 companies were found successful among the 100 plus something companies that participated in the tender.
Among these 35 companies,7 companies have been awarded more than 1 lot,due to sensitivity of this matter,i shall not disclose their trading names; ○ First company has three lots: Plastic pails with,with taps and black plastic sheet
○ Second Company has 3 lots: Bales of Sugar, Ropes and Tarpulins.
○ Third Company has 2 lots: Kitchen Salt & Likuni Phala
○ Fourth Company has 2 lots: Plastic pails with lids and taps
○ Fifth company has 2 lots: Blanket and Printed 50kg empty bags
○ Sixth Company has 2 lots: Large Family and small family tents.
○ Seventh Company has 2 lots: Blankets & Printed 50kg empty bags.
28 companies have been awarded one lot each. Totalling 35 contracts under Various Relief Item framework agreement for the period of 2022 to 2023.
Am not sure if they’re well deserving or not,as am yet to go through the evaluation report.
One thing is certain the whole evaluation process is a mess,unprocedural,biased and deliberately done in a way to sidelined other bidders for reasons behest to the IPDC.
Dodma is always in the paper for wrong reasons. I remember Hon Ganda once lamented on their unprocedural Awardment of Goat contract to an individual based in the lower shire regardless he/she was the most expensive bidder.
DoDMA was in the paper lamenting that people are no longer donating to them. How can they? When Dodma was implicated in the abuse of Covid-19 funds.
Therefore! Am appealing to bidders who participated in this tender to take DoDMA to task to publish the results publicly and as well to give back all samples.
To say the truth DoDMA is a sham,an embarrassment to the office of the President.
Chakaniza in front of the plant under construction
Ethanol distiller, Ethanol Company Limited (EthCo) has embarked on a K5.2 billion project to manage liquid waste from its manufacturing process which will see the company producing fertilizer and electricity from the process.
EthCo Chief Executive Officer Lusubilo Chakaniza said in an interview yesterday that the ethanol manufacturing process produces a liquid waste (effluent) called vinasse at a rate of 12 litres for every litre of ethanol produced meaning at full capacity, 218 million litres of effluent would be produced in a year.
“If not properly managed, this effluent can be detrimental to both vegetation and aquatic life. Currently, the vinasse is stored in evaporation ponds for drying and the dried sludge is used by farmers around Dwangwa for crop nutrition and soil conditioning because it consists of organic material rich in Potassium and also contains Nitrogen, Phosphorous, zinc and Sulphur. However, the drying process is long and takes close to a year.”
“To mitigate against the risk of environmental degradation, EthCo is implementing an innovative effluent treatment solution that will result in Zero Liquid Discharge from the plant at a cost of MK5.2 billion. The process will involve bio-digestion, evaporation, condensate treatment and drying and the process would take less than a week,” explained Chakaniza.
She said from this process, there will be biogas produced which will be used to generate steam to drive a turbine and produce about 2 Megawatts of electricity thereby making the factory self-sufficient on electricity.
The EthCo plant under construction
“The dried material will be processed in a granulation plant to produce granulated potassium rich organic fertilizer that will be bagged in 50 Kg bags for selling at an affordable cost. The water recovered from the treatment system will be treated and recycled back to the factory thereby reducing the water footprint,” said Chakaniza.
She said the project is more than a year late due to Covid-19 pandemic related delays but is expected to be commissioned by December 2022.
Environmental activist and president of Association of Environmental Journalists in Malawi Matthews Malata hailed EthCo for embarking on the project.
“Anything that is introduced to save our environment or indeed promote sustainable utilization of our natural resources is welcome. Malawi should have advanced with such an innovation many years ago but it’s never too late. Greening the economy means bringing such kinds of innovations to life,” said Malata.
EthCo, a subsidiary of conglomerate Press Corporation plc, is Malawi’s sole producer of potable (extra-neutral spirit) alcohol that is used by the beverage and pharmaceutical industries and also produces anhydrous alcohol (fuel ethanol), and rectified alcohol for industrial applications.
The country’s Roads Authority (RA) has responded in favour of Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) which is demanding disclosure of road construction agreements signed during service procurement process.
In a letter dated March 15, 2022 signed by RA’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Engineer Francis Dimu and made available to this publication, says the documents are ready and shall be provided to CDEDI as stipulated in access to information laws.
Dimu said should there be need for photocopies, CDEDI might duplicate the documents at its own costs.
Initially, in its letter to RA dated February 28, 2022, for interest of transparency and accountability sake, CDEDI demanded the disclosure of contractual agreements for Jenda-Edingeni, Karonga -Songwe, Mzimba-Mzarangwe, Kapiri-Mkanda, Ntchisi -Malomo, Kenyatta Drive & Sharrar Street not to mention of Ntcheu-Tsangano, Nsanje -Marka and Nsanama -Nayuchi roads.
The human rights organisation came flat on its watchdog role as a call for the country to raise the standards of public infrastructure, and fight the nauseating deep-rooted corruption entrenched in the construction industry.
Within the letter, CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa went further challenging Malawians to be keeping a keen eye on public infrastructure projects being implemented in their areas as one way of guaranteeing value for the money spent on the projects, such as roads, railways and bridges.
The heavy rains that have been experienced in the country have exposed poor workmanship, negligence and outright disregard of contractual details in the implementation of some projects.
However, despite disclosure of contractual agreements, Namiwa is still asking RA to audit projects under its jurisdiction against details of signed contracts for the same, and give feedback on the same.
