…East Bridge was paid US$600,000.00
…fertiliser bought from Export Trading
Truth and President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration are strangers. The government paid K1.5 billion (US$600,000) as part payment of the 28, 000-ton fertiliser worth K57.7 billion (US$23 million) it intended to a company called East Bridge Estates, which it had announced in had cancelled the contracts and US$250 million sovereign guarantees it issued to them.
Like many fraudulent exposed contracts, President Chakwera and his Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale conspired to lie to Malawians, removing Sosten Gwengwe from Finance and continued with the contracts whose main player is fugitive Paul Mphwiyo, who is said to have been escorted out of Malawi in State House vehicles.
This means, that Mphwiyo’s run from justice over his role in cashgate is supported by President Chakwera using taxpayers’ money, another first for the leader whose aides, Ministers and appointees are running government as a ponzi scheme.
East Bridge never had fertiliser, now Chakwera, Kawale panic
Minister Sam Kawale spent hours on television lying to Malawians that East Bridge had a plant in Romania which later moved to Turkey before it quickly became Mozambique when The Investigator Magazine kept exposing his lies. The truth as before and the truth one year later, the company never had a single drop of fertiliser.
The Agriculture Minister attempting to give another 600 000 tons to a “ghost Sheikh” seems to have specialised in shady deals as he has overseen the latest attempts to make East Bridge a legitimate fertiliser company. Still, he has been hitting a blank wall.
The East Bridge deal, who met President Chakwera included a 5,000-fertiliser ton to be paid to Chakwera and Kawale for the 25,000-ton deliveries which would then be given to shell companies and the money shared by the President, Kawale and the MCP.
The company paid some of the money to the officials and now the Jewish owner Hiam Tzutziashvili has camped at Bingu Hotel in Lilongwe for weeks and has been negotiating for payment for fertiliser he never imported.
“He is cross with what has been happening and he is blackmailing them that he will expose them. Government is in panic, the Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda is trying to negotiate an exit after his lawyers Golden and Law gave government 90 days to pay off the US22.3 million,” said a highly placed source.
Hiam is an Israel national whose passport he uses across Africa, but he is registered his businesses in Bucharest, Romania where he rarely spends time as he had a lot of unpaid deals. He has 8 registered bankruptcies and is classified as “high risk.”
But Chakwera and his team seems to be fond of crooked businessmen as they seek to collect “political tithe” on every public contract. The new demand is based on fertiliser from Malawi, not Turkey or Romania as Kawale lied to Malawians.
East Bridge claims K57 billion from fertiliser bought locally
The Investigator Magazine has been following the East Bridge fertiliser for months and the company has not shipped a single grain of fertiliser into Malawi but bought from a local company -Export Trading and wants to be paid for literally being a “middleman” in Kanengo.
“What is more ridiculous, Kawale and Moses Kunkuyu (Information Minister) recently went to pose on the fertiliser in an SFFFRM warehouse at Kanengo claiming AIP fertiliser. Look at the labels they are East Bridge. This fertiliser was procured from Export Trading,” said an agriculture official.
The Investigator Magazine found a shocking scenario where actually the fertiliser will not even be an inch despite the quoted US$821 per ton price including transport to Lilongwe.
“Export Trading Company rents the SFFRFM warehouse in Kanengo. When East Bridge ordered the 28,000 tons, it was already at Kanengo. But for being middlemen, the Mphwiyo cartel will rake in between 200 to 250 dollars per ton which is US$7 million without paying for any costs,” explained someone close to the matter.
The Investigator Magazine could not establish how much would be remitted to Chakwera, Kawale and MCP but based in the initial deal at least for 5,000 tons, it would translate into US1.25 million.
Being broke saved Malawians from the theft, so too Finance Minister
A cache of documents shows that SFFRFM directed by Kawale initially asked Treasury to pay the amount as part of AIP and when it was discovered it was for the East Bridge deal, the Minister of Finance requested to have his authorisation withdrawn after it had already reached SFFRFM.
“Treasury has no money, it had initially thought it was for normal AIP procurement. SFFRFM which is being pushed to get suppliers that SPC Colleen Zamba and Kawale know has no money. They paid only K1.5 billion but being broke meant the deal could not go through,” narrated the source.
The fertiliser was identified between March and May 2024 and was idle until Kawale photo shoot to pretend the government had procured AIP fertiliser when it knows it has not paid anyone for the commodity.
“The whole thing has turned political. It looks like Kawale has now ditched East Bridge and want to pay Export Trading the lower price. This is opening a pandora box as the cartel is threatening to expose the whole deal,” said another source.
The Investigator Magazine has requested Mr. Hiam Tzutziashvili for a recorded interview.
K6 trillion deals with fake suppliers, a hallmark of a corrupt government
President Chakwera has been on the road to justify the need to re-elect his administration but he does not accept to have run an effectively “most corrupt” administration in Malawi whose attempts and foiled deals now exceed K10 trillion.
At every turn, every contract, his administration has been caught trying to engage fake suppliers or ghost suppliers without using open procedures and mostly shady characters who in the end are told to sue Malawi government and settle out of court.
“The Chief from Nigeria, fake Sheikh from Dubai and East bridge alone are deals worth K6 trillion and nobody has been fired or taken to task speaks volume of Chakweras leadership and complicity in these deals,” said one of the Treasury officials looking at cost of corruption under Chakwera.
Editors view- Chakwera is the largest beneficiary of K6 trillion loot under his watch
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Fahad Assani said 30% of the Malawi budgetary resources are lost through fraud, theft and corruption. We would like to revisit Assani’s assessment as under President Chakwera, theft, fraud and corruption are the official way of doing business.
When Hellen Buluma blew a whistle on fuel procurement- at least K1 trillion was involved. Nothing happened. There was a talk of giving K600 million Kammwamba Energy projects to a “Chief” a very close acquittance of Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, again President Chakwera was unmoved.
Then came the K300 million Butchery Fertiliser saga which would have cost K20 billion, then K17 billion Covid 19 funds, add to the Roads and other projects costs. Boom enters Zuneth Sattar with what is now well over K300 billion contracts- nothing will happen. (Read our next story how Chakwera and Zamba are dismantling the Anti-Corruption Bureau this week).
As the economy crisis, food crisis and now fuel crisis hit Malawians, one would expect Chakwera an ordained pastor of God, Zamba an ardent follower of a Nigerian prophet, and Kawale a son of a an ordained pastor would have empathy for the poorest suffering from their mediocre approach to governance. No, they are seeking to inflict the pain harder on the poorest.
East Bridge’s US$250 million would be worth almost K0.6 trillion and now just buying from another company at Kanengo they are demanding K57 billion from a broke state. Zamba and Transport Minister Jacob Hara are busy with fake suppliers to blow off at least K2 trillion of public finances.
Where we are today, where professional thieves are salivating at public taxes reflects poorly on the President. He only acts when people claim he is sick, he cant act on the corrupt. As his Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu once said- if someone is stealing and the boss is doing nothing, follow him and see where he drops the stolen items.
We agree with Kunkuyu’s philosophy, if all these scandals have seen Chakwera remain silent or dismantle the ACB- he is the biggest beneficiary of the K6 trillion fraud Malawi has experienced under him. It is time international community investigates the riches and funds being stashed outside Malawi and expose the hypocrisy of these people who hold the bible on one hand and steal from the poor with the other.
