MZUZU, Sunday, June 7, 2015 (MaraviPost): The Peter Mutharika administration soon after attaining office let it publicly be known that Government was cancelling K58 billion (US$128.9 million) worth of Malawi Defense Force contracts with South African military supplier Paramount Group. This was simply a bet and switch negotiating tactic to gain better terms as contracts legally signed by a previous government bounded the incoming administration.
It has now come to light that the contract was a controversial one, as it included the purchase of very expensive patrol boats. The Paramount Group, Africa’s largest private defense and aerospace firm signed deals with the Malawian government for agriculture, fuel and military contracts through a network of investment firms. However the controversy sprung from the Sale of the Dassault Falcon 900EX Malawi presidential Jet to Bohnox Enterprises, a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands and linked to Paramount Group.
Reports in Malawi suggested that since the plane was sold, President Joyce Banda continued to use it regularly to travel to events around the continent. The trips formed part of a total of 20 private plane flights she took in just three months at the end of 2013.
It is now no surprise that the Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale and Ministry of Finance spokesperson Nations Msowoya confirmed in separate interviews in the week that government has revisited the issue.
“We are re-negotiating the deals instead of cancelling. We reviewed the contracts and discovered that all were properly drafted according to our laws. We will just renegotiate some of the contracts,” said Kaphale, but for security reasons, said he could not disclose the actual arms deals under renegotiation.
On his part, Msowoya asked for more time to find out the total cost of the contracts to be renegotiated.
“The agreement between the Malawi Government and Paramount Group has been abrogated. That is all I can confirm and say,” Gondwe told Malawi media.
When government cancelled the deal, Paramount Group released a statement, describing the termination of the contracts as untrue, but government insisted such a decision was indeed made.
Under the contracts, Malawi was supposed to pay the supplier $5 million (K2 billion) quarterly.
