Anti Corruption Bureau director, Martha Chizuma, has thrown professional caution and due diligence to the wind as she is now instituting an investigation on the Njakwa – Livingstonia Road Project solely on fabrications paraded by a briefcase civil rights group.
Little known Citizens for Mindset Change (CMC) wrote ACB on March 8 2022 asking her to investigate Roads Authority and Mota Engil over what the group views as non-adherence to processes that guided the awarding of the contract in 2016.
In the letter CMC claims that Mota Engil was awarded the contract on a silver platter without any tender process.
Malawi Gazette has, however, established that the assertions by CMC are fabrications and contrary to what really transpired in 2016.
A letter from Roads Authority on February 2, 2016, RefNo.: RA/DEV/2015-16/02 shows that there was a full tender process that followed the Public Procurement Law and Regulations of the Government of Malawi to the book.
Though the rights body says the project was awarded to Mota Engil without any tender being publicized through normal channels, there were many companies that submitted their bids after which a shortlist of four was drawn.
The four shortlisted companies are Shire Construction, Fargo Limited, Cilcon Limited, China Road and Bridge and Road Cooperation, Mota Engil.
It was after a rigorous bidding process that Mota Engil was awarded the contract and has adhered to the guiding principles of the that contract.
The K39 Billion project runs from Njakwa at Chipokawawoli Bridge to Livingstonia Mission and ends in Chitimba where it joins the M1 Road.
Chizuma’s hear-and-rush approach, not only on this matter, is what has cost her respect in the eleven months she has been in office. She is largely viewed as the unprepared novice who dances to the impulses of every barking voice without following laid out procedures as per the Corrupt Practices Act.
Just recently, Chizuma was sent back from the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for seeking consent to prosecute a case using a half-baked investigation.