…Chair grabs vehicle, usurp CEO powers
Green Belt Authority (GBA) continues to leak public resources as the Board Chairman Wester Kosamu is now dictating allowance rates, grabbed the Authority vehicle he is not entitled and has fired people he doesn’t like and hired those he likes.
Kosamu has refused to respond, but in public adverts placed in various local media, The Investigator can confirm that he is using a personal email to receive job applications, highly bizarre occurrence and unheard of in corporate governance, as nobody can verify who has applied for the job.
Kosamu on 6th November 2022 got from the GBA a Toyota Hilux registration number MG971AK which is used as a utility vehicle and by 20th December, 2022 the vehicle, which he is not entitled to, has not been returned to the GBA.
But Kosamu powers are well beyond the Board Authority, he is the Authority. He single handedly decide rates for special auditors he had sourced from various government departments and he decided who to fire and hire.
Documents we have received show over K6 million was paid as allowances, fuel, which auditors pocketed for an audit of 15 people at Salima Sugar Factory, yet four days of allowances was claimed.
Kosamu was appointed by President Lazarus Chakwera to Chair the GBA and by October 1, 2022 most of the Board members who were appointed left and only one ex-officio from statutory corporations worked with the Chair to purge 28 staff members he thought were DPP cadets who were inappropriately recruited.
He then mobilized a personnel audit, and officials from Ministry of Justice, Agriculture, Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Department of Human Resources and Ministry of Labour. He paid them K5 564 800.00 as allowances. They went to Salima Sugar factory to audit 15 guards only.
According to their signed allowance sheet each of the officials received K280,000.00 as allowances for four days and K276,480.00 as fuel despite using Malawi Government vehicles which were fueled by their respective departments. The officials pocketed the money, essentially stealing from the public taxes.
The personnel team audit was then to meet in Lilongwe at Wankulu Palace and a full night rate of K70,000 was paid to them adding another K630,000 to the struggling tax payers, despite the Investigator confirming that all of them are stationed at Capital Hill in Lilongwe, which is less than 2.4km to Wankulu Palace.
Officials from the GBA also shared K648 000.00 for four days.
The spending spree of public resources did not end with pocketing of the funds, an additional 122 litres was added to the tax payers with K237,120.00 for what is termed as local running.
Kosamu and acting GBA authority CEO tried to justify the expenditures, but after he fired 28 staff members including drivers that were accused on having JCE for a post requiring an MSCE certificate, he went on to advertise the posts with JCE as qualification. Kosamu went further, he decided to use his personal email, a first in public service jobs.
“The man is running GBA as a personal entity. The CEO and the office are secretariat to the Board. They should have been receiving applications and short list and then refer to the Board for interviews and selection. This highly irregular occurrence sums up how GBA is being run today,’ said one of the officials at GBA.
President Lazarus Chakwera promised professionally run boards, but so far the MCP filled boards have ended up with financial scams including the National Food Reserve Agency which lost 13 trucks of maize to an MCP official it hired to transport, over 38,000 tons of maize at Admarc, K750 million for AIP programme through the SFFFRM and many others. MCP officials are looting state corporations.
Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani is yet to respond to our questions submitted over the continued looting of finances and resources from state owned enterprises, which is now on a free mode.
