By Deus Chikalaza
Malawi Defence Force (MDF) has been caught in a massive fraud following the revelations that the army awarded contracts to a company owned by Malawian of Asian origin without the company submitting bids.
According to social media comprehensive report alleges that AKI Investments supplied military uniforms and other essential goods to MDF for three years allegedly “without any effort to bid”.
The report entitled AKI Investment New Kid on Armygate, exposes how the company based in Lilongwe took MDF General Vincent Nundwe to Dubai, China and Hong Kong between 2017 and 2018 as a token of appreciation for getting four major contracts to supply military hardware worth billions of kwachas to the MDF’s its peace keeping obligations.
AKI Investment is owned by Muneer Ismail, a businessperson alleged to have strong affiliations to the former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whose senior officials were arrested recently on fraud-related allegations.
It is believed that Muneer Ishmail was funding the party during the time it was in power between 2014 and 2020.
Recently, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) also expressed concern that the company was dominating MDF contracts and refused to approve another to the company.
This publication understands that the Director General Irene Mlewa signed and sealed the letter and she highlighted: “Reason of refusal is the supplier Has been having continued running contracts for the past three years.
It is very likely that value of money is not being realized on this procurement as no evidence has been provided to indicate that this requirement has been subjected to any competition for the past three years.
There was no immediate reaction from both Ministry of Defence and MDF officials on the matter.
Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Martha Chizuma has not commented on the matter.
However, if the trend continues of awarding contracts to crooked Asians without biding, Malawi will continue to lose huge sums of taxpayers’ money.
