Tag Archives: Fiscal police

Law and order, Malawi

ACB, Fiscal police clear Batatawala’s company on MK53bn Immigration Uniform supply contract

Maravi Post Reporter
Immigration department

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Fiscal Police have cleared businessman Abdul Karim Batatawala—trading as Africa Commercial Agency and Reliance Trading Company from any wrongdoing ongoing Immigration Uniform supply contract

The development comes as Batatawala’s firms are in court, where they dragged the Immigration Department and are demanding over MK53 billion payments for items that the businessman supplied to the government in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

According to Court documents this publication has seen, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Fiscal Police had cleared the company of any wrongdoing or allegations of fraud.

This is happening at a time Attorney General (AG) Chikosa Silungwe has asked the ACB to investigate the contracts— which he describes as dubious— between the Department of Immigration and Batatawala’s firms.

According to a letter sent to ACB, Silungwe says the contracts were not duly approved by the Secretary to the Treasury and that officers at the department overcommitted the government to huge sums of money which was not appropriated by the National Assembly.

“We note that all the said contracts bear the same contract number with a mere ‘No objection’ from PPDA [Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority] masquerading as an authority to enter into such contracts… We find these transactions to be very suspicious,” the letter reads.

However, court records in case number 16 of 2017 between Africa Commercial Agency and Reliance Trading Company and the AG, the witness statement of a Malawi Police Service Fiscal and Fraud Section officer, among others, confirmed that there was a contract and that the items were supplied to the Immigration Department’s warehouse.

Based on this, the then AG Kalekeni Kaphale, on March 4 2020, wrote Batatawala’s lawyers Nampota opting for negotiations to reduce the amount.

“…in the circumstances, you may wish to pend further action on the case until the negotiations are conducted and finalised,” the letter reads.

The records show that both the ACB and Fiscal Police cleared Batatawala and his companies, having found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the suppliers.

For all the contracts, the Office of the Director of Public Procurement, which is now called PPDA, carried out due diligence and issued ‘No Objections’.

For each contract, the Immigration Department would issue a request to submit bids, to which Africa Commercial Agency and Reliance Trading Company would respond.

For instance  in a letter dated March 8 2009, the then Chief Immigration Officer Elvis Thodi wrote Africa Commercial Agency, advising the company that it had been nominated to participate in the procurement of uniforms and other items by the Immigration Department, which also provided bidding documents to the firm.

On March 20 2009, Africa Commercial Agency sent its quotation to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services’ Internal Procurement Committee, which evaluated the offers and awarded the contract on April 24 2009.

This was the standard for all the contracts that the department had processed pertaining to the supply of uniforms and accessories in 2010 and 2012.

According to the agreed terms of delivery and payments, delivery and payments would be gradual and spread over several years based on the department’s uniform needs.

According to documents we have seen—including written communications between the suppliers and the Immigration Department—the firms delivered the goods and the department acknowledged receipt and was able to make part payments.

As it is now Mr Karim Batatawala and his affiliated business interests have no case, as everything was done in an orderly manner and by the book.

All major relevant governing bodies have found him NOT GUILTY.

corruption, Law and order, Malawi, Top News

Malawi’ students loan board Director Chisoni under probe on MK17m diaries gate

Maravi Post Reporter

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Fiscal Police have moved with speed in probing the revelations that High Education Students Loan Board (HESLGB) Executive Director Chris Chisoni for being embroiled into abuse of office and Diaries-gate.

Chisoni is suspected to have fraudulently paid MK17 million to his wife company printing forms and dairies.

This comes a few days The Maravi Post exclusively exposed the fraud that EE & A Enterprise, a company which belong to Chisoni’s wife, Esther Chisoni was paid the money by the loans board.

The organisation’s diaries and loan forms, a contract awarded to a private firm which has appalled and incensed most Malawians as the cost deviates from the institution’s core mission of providing loans to needy students.

Both Head of Fiscal Police Isaac Norman and deputy police spokesman Thomeck Nyaude confirmed the investigation on HESLHG secretariat.

And more shocking are further allegations that this is not the first time that the Loans Board did business with EE & A Enterprise, which led to the firing of its Finance and Administration Manager for questioning such dealings.

The deal is exposed at a time when several under-privileged students continue to struggle to obtain loans from the board due to inadequate funding.

Nyaude said Fiscal Police as a branch of detectives under the main body of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has instituted the investigations into the matter.

“Fiscal Police is mandated to investigate cases in as a far as police work is concerned,” said Nyaude.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) legislator Juliana Lunguzi last week moved a motion calling for a review of the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Boards.

Lunguzi wants the Parliamentary Committee on Education to examine the Higher Education Students Loans Act of 2015 and address the great gap that exists and accommodate everyone.

According to sources at the board disclosed that the payment raised an alarm as to why Chisoni would authorize payment for the printing of forms which can be photocopied or accessed by student through their portals.

Verified information has indicated that this in not the first time for the board director to be involved in such abuse of office.

The MK17 million could pay for 21 first year generic students or 24 continuing generic students for two semesters.

Efforts to talk to Chisoni proved futile on several attempts to here his side on the matter.

The loan board has always been accused of not working according to its mandate where unprivileged and poor students fail to access the loan for their studies instead learners from well-to-do-families are benefiting from the initiative.

Malawi

4 foreign nationals arrested over 250 passport gate

Maravi Post Reporter

Four foreign nationals have been arrested by the Fiscal police on Monday in connection with the missing 250 passports at the Immigration Department last year.

Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Cecilia Chazama told Maravi Post on Friday that the arrested are Congolese, Rwandan, Burundian and Nigerian nationals.

“The arrest of the four by Fiscal Police is a huge step forward in busting a ‘syndicate’ that has been targeting the Malawi passport for sale to international criminals,” she said.

A reliable source in the Immigration Department said a foreign national who was found with one of the stolen passports implicated the others as the source of the documents.

The source said a team of investigators from Immigration Department, Malawi Police Service (MPS) and the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security went to South Africa and other countries a few months ago to investigate the missing passport booklets numbered MW853501 to MW853750.

National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera however denied to issue a comment on the matter saying it is too early.

But Mzimba West legislator Harry Mkandawire, who during the last sitting of Parliament criticised government’s handling of the matter when it first came up, claimed in an interview that the State was involved in the theft of the booklets.

Mkandawire first raised the alarm in May this year, saying a consignment of passports that Immigration Department received on December 9 2016, from Technobrain, the supplier of the booklets, had one box containing 250 blank passports missing.

He said a stores clerk refused to sign for the consignment, but a senior official signed for it, although a box was missing.

But Principal Secretary for Ministry of Home Affairs Sam Madula, who yesterday also confirmed the arrests, said the Nigerian escaped from the hands of the South African security officers after being interrogated.

“But we had already extracted the information that we needed by the time he disappeared. There was nothing that we could do to extradite him. So, what we know is that he is still in South Africa, but we do not know his whereabouts. However, we are continuing to make arrests from the information that he gave us,” he said.