Malawi

Malawi’s graft busting body stops NOCMA from awarding dodgy fuel contracts

Maneno Chimulala
Fuel reserve at Kanengo in Lilongwe

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has issued a restriction order to the National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) on a fuel supply contract.

Principal Public Relations officer for the bureau, Egritta Ndala, has confirmed this in an interview with local media.

According to Ndala, the graft busting body has issued the notice following several complaints received alleging irregularities and suspected corruption surrounding the fuel procurement process.

Among the institutions that have recently asked ACB to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of office in the procurement of fuel supply contracts by NOCMA is the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC).

HRDC felt the award of fuel supply contracts to Lake Oil Limited, Dalbit International Limited and Camel Oil limited was “suspicious,” with strong likelihood of involvement of fraud and corruption.

There has been a tussle between energy regulator Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) and Nocma, and in January the former had rejected an application by Nocma to allow it to award fuel contracts to two suppliers from a field of 23 applicants.

In a letter dated January 15 2021 to Nocma, which we had seen, Mera acting chief executive officer Ishmael Chioko wrote:  “I am therefore writing to inform Nocma that Mera has declined to approve Nocma’s application.”

Mera’s communication to Nocma meant that the latter could not proceed to seek a ‘No objection’ from the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) to award the two contracts for Nocma’s required supply of 314 830 metric tones (MT) of fuel for the whole 2020/21

Mera’s decline of the proposed awards comes two months after Minister of Energy Newton Kambala cancelled the tenders because Nocma did not have an executive management in place to execute such transactions.

IPG (Independent Petroleum Group) is a group of companies headquartered in Kuwait with worldwide operations in the trading and marketing of crude oil, liquid petroleum and gas (LPG), petrochemicals and fertilisers. In addition to this core activity, IPG has interests in terminalling, pipelines and shipping.

Lake Oil Limited is a Tanzania-based company also with operations in the trading and marketing of crude oil, LPG and petrochemicals.