Chakwera pressured to fire those involved East Bridge deal
Being pushed to act-Chakwera
Pressure is mounting on President Lazarus Chakwera to fire officials involved in the East Bridge fertilizer deal.
This follows the decision by the Finance authorities to cancel the deal as part of implementing recommendations by the International Monetary Fund IMF.
The deal was aimed at facilitating the importation of fertilizer into Malawi which would have later been bartered with various agricultural produce.
However, questions have been asked on the practicality of the deal with commentators demanding answers from relevant authorities.
While commending the minister of finance for cancelling the deal, parliamentary committee chairperson on agriculture Sameer Suleman demands a comprehensive probe on the issue.
“Am happy that the minister has listened to our concern that this deal raised a lot of questions on the way it was handled. Remember, this is not political party money but rather tax payers’ money where by it is supposed to be accounted for.” Suleman added.
He further expressed sadness over continued disregard of involving some critical stakeholders like the office of the Anti- Corruption Bureau – ACB and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets – PPDA Authority in all crucial and multibillion kwacha contracts which has ended up the government in engaging bogus companies.
“How can the whole government put its trust into a pharmacy company to supply fertiliser for the whole country?” Suleman wondered.
He therefore challenged President Chakwera to take to task all those responsible in the deal and dig more into what happened so as to send a strong signal on the serious of the current administration.
Taking his turn, Fryson Chodzi who is the national coordinator of Forum for National Development says; “The minister of agriculture and everybody who got us into this dubious deal must be fired and be held accountable. This is unacceptable.”
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