Fresh details emerging on the Zambia maize saga show that officials involved in the maize deal between Admarc and Kaloswe had planned to cheat Malawians as they set to supply only a few tonnes of maize but ask for payment for the entire 100, 000 tonnage of the grain according to The Daily Times paper.
Sources close to the deal confided in the paper that Admarc connived with officials from Zambia to purchase only a few tonnes as Zambia Cooperative Federation did not have the needed 100,000 metric tonnes.
Although these details are fresh, they are not at all surprising as earlier last week Admarc boss Foster Mulumbe admitted before members of a parliamentary joint committee of Agriculture and Public Accounts that both Zambian traders–Kaloswe and ZCF–had neither maize nor capacity to supply maize to Malawi but went ahead anyway to contract with them.
“It’s very clear that ZCF could not manage to supply the 100,000 tonnes and so the question is why Admarc did sign such a contract when the supplier had no capacity? The plan was to move only few tonnes and pay for 100,000 tonnes,” the paper quotes the source.
According to the paper, the source further disclosed that ZCF is money-deficient and has serious problems sourcing the maize from cooperative members because the profits to be realized are small and the cooperatives are demanding on-point cash payments.
Speaking when he appeared before the parliamentary joint committee on the maizegate last week Secretary to the Treasury Ronald Mangani frankly told the joint committe members that Admarc officials by-passed the seat of government in going ahead to sign the contract as it did with Kaloswe and ZFC. He asid that in doing so Admarc officials gravely breached procedures.
Other government officials from the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Office of Director of Public Procurement (ODPP) have given the parliamentary joint committee on maizegate differing information which seriously points to shady dealings in the maize procurement scandal.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary joint committee plans to visit Zambia to gather more information on the maizegate to beef up its finding.
The Government of Malawi borrowed K24 billion from PTA Bank for the purchase of the 100,000 metric tonnes of maize to alleviate hunger as it was forecast that many Malawians would face hunger this year.
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2 responses to “Fresh details on the Zambia maize saga: Plan was to supply few tonnes but claim money for entire 100,000 tonnes”
All I can do is say sorry to the people of Malawi for our side of the responsibility to this and yet another example of the government of zambia being less than honest in there dealings. we need to get our house in order!
I believe these details are very close to the truth about this deal. The reason why Peter Munthalika’s hands are tied regarding Dr Chaponda is that he is part and parcel of the deal. They wanted to fund raise for the DDP party at the expense of Malawians. Afew pointers underpin my argument. 1) As a Group(DPP) they don’t want to sacrifice Chaponda who was facilitating the deal on behalf of the party – because of being amatures judging by the errors made in this deal, they now even regret to have directly involved the Senior Minister. At the very least if things turn worse with the so many inquiries involved in this issue Mr Mulumbe will be sacrificed but with so minimal penalties like dismissal, 2) this deal/transaction has been deally dullied too much. Remember it started in March last year as an urgent thing. The most lean and tough months interms of hunger starts in October upto March the other year and thus where the country needs maize in all ADMARC Depots. Why would the government delay the whole process which started mid last year until around December last year they were still discussing the logistics. The country thru. ADMARC and NFRA had bought big volumes of maize from Zambia but through agents(business men from Karonga and Chitipa bought maize from Zambian Local Cooperatives. The Zambian Local Cooperatives were delivering the maize at Chitipa Boma and inturn local business bought it and supplied it to NFRA at Kanengo Warehouses). This is why Zambia do not have alot of maize and had to effect a ban. So by December last year the country(thru. ADMARC and NFRA) already had adequate supplies of maize. Which means the Zambia deal was not real and it was well covered as funds were going to be misappropriated but there was not going to be any effect since we already had adequate supplies.Proof – there is no panick now in terms of maize purchases at ADMARC depots and vendors are also able to sell at lower prices. I would like to speculate that the plan by DDP led government was only for Kaloswe/ZFC to supply 10,000 metric tonnes and pocket the rest of the money. If individuals were to benefit it was going to be small amounts as a token of thanks for facilitating the deal. Otherwise the whole amount was going to the party for Campaign purposes. Kaloswe was brought in so that the stolen funds paid by PTA Bak could be easily transfered to the DPP thru the people involved. The question to us Malawians is this. How long have we seen Politicians destroying our country, borrowing funds on behalf of Malawians and all the future generations for purposes of funding party activities which have nothing to do with a local malawian. I hate Malawians because usually we are not kin in asking questions. Malawi is so poor and I believe this is the same with our leaders. But how come from no where we see our leaders flashing out huge sums of money during campaigns and yet they have no history of owning an oil well let alone investments in mines in Zambia, South Africa or illegal dealings in precious stones in Congo. Their mine or oil wells are the same government coffers. I repeat look critically how Muluzi(Shire Buslines/Stage Coach, Kalaria, Ministry of Education scam, Input subsidy, so many drilling contracts which never materialised), Bingu(Motar Engel Contracts, Input Susidy, Mulli Brothers etc), Joyce Banda(Lutepo, Input Subsidy, Mphwiyo), Peter Munthalika(Tevet Scam, Input Subsidy, Zambia Maize saga). When you go through these regimes seriously you will see alot of loans borrowed from the east(Arab Banks, Chinese Banks, including this PTA Bank) but these loans have not benefited Malawians, most of the projects are unfinnished or were not done at all. Let us work up and stop electing thieves to rule us. I believe the so called politicians who were in government before but are out but still practicing have alot of information but since they were part of the crooked systems before they will not say anything the list is very long but includes Sam Mpasu, Harry Thomson, Frank Mwenefumbo, Mwalwanda, Harry Mkandawire, Nyahara(Mrs Gontani), Billy Kaunda, Sosten Gwengwe, Simon Vuwa Kaunda, Bakili Muluzi, Jafali Mussa.