By IOMMIE CHIWALO

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Minus the unimpressive leadership demonstrated during Malawi Congress Party (MCP) regime, Malawians were convinced by the then opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whose campaign was flagged as “the return of proven leadership” highlighting the end of fuel and Forex shortages.

But now Malawians are only requested to be resilient as government has confirmed that fuel reserves are dry amid recent 34 percent price adjustment.

Government Spokesman, Shadreck Namalomba confirmed that currently is not only about the dry fuel reserves but dry coffers to the extent that treasury is planning to borrow US$120 million from Afrexim Bank so as to purchase 120 million litres of fuel.

Namalomba has also put to light that apart from unavailability of foreign currency, Israel -Iran war is another pressing factor.

But recently, a pick from a rare moment that witnessed a joint statement from Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) and Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) was that the current crisis has exposed deep institutional failures to the extent that government failed to secure adequate reserves when global fuel prices were low, procurement remains inefficient and opaque, and there has been no accountability for years of poor planning.

The two organisations observed that it is more troubling to have previous regime’s Government-to-Government (G2G) fuel procurement arrangements abandoned arguing that the model was designed to stabilize prices, reduce procurement costs, and eliminate inflated margins by enabling direct access to oil-producing countries.

“By abandoning that arrangement, government has placed Malawians at the mercy of middlemen and volatile markets, and cost-inflating actors.

“Instead, government has reverted to an Open Tender System which, while presented as competitive, is notorious for creating opportunities for corruption and inflated pricing since the system allows private middlemen and politically-connected intermediaries to insert themselves into the supply chain, extracting profit without adding value,” reads part of a recent joint statement from CDEDI and HRDC which was duly signed by Sylvester Namiwa and Michael Kaiyatsa.

The two did not only condemn the intermediaries for driving costs up, reduced transparency, and undermining predictability in the sector but also demanded for an urgent and concrete steps to
protect Malawians from further economic distress through temporary reduction as well as suspension of some fuel levies and taxes if not to mention of resumption of G2G fuel procurement arrangement as a means of removing lustful intermediaries and restore price stability.

Meanwhile when Malawians were expecting answers on the use of Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) Government Spokesman Namalomba asked for patience.

He has also gone a mile in condemning fuel service station owners whom he alleged that are hoarding the precious commodity raising a question on how to “conceal unavailable commodity”?

As it stands, according to reputable economic commentators in Malawi, people should expect skyrocketing of prices of goods and services saying is even hard to consolidate the gains such as lowering inflation rate which has been witnessed in the previous month.