…Buluma’s 2022 whistleblowing still chased by Zamba
…the K128 billion was looting by Chakwera and associates
President Lazarus Chakwera has a thing of attracting crooks, criminals and pure thieves- from a fertiliser butchery in London via Bridgin Foundation in Brussels to East Bridge of Kawale pretending to be in Romania and now to a fake Dubai Royalty. The Investigator Magazine has uncovered disturbing trends of the alleged Private Office of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Faisal Al Qassimi who allegedly was to supply K128 billion worth of fuel to Malawi.
NOCMA asked its bankers to guarantee K128 billion and release half of the amount before any single litre of fuel had been delivered, which was for 125 000 metric tons of diesel and 125 000 metric tons of petrol to a Lilongwe-based forex bureau, QLV Digital Fx (Malawi) Limited.
The deal is the same 2022 one that Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba pushed for. More disturbing is that some of the deal’s team members are posting photos with President Lazarus Chakwera, begging the question of whether he is aware of this grand theft of public resources.
Or the President and his officials are just cheap crooks who get caught at every attempt to fleece Malawians using National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) which is chaired by Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, fertiliser supply or energy deals. The amateurship in public finances at the time the public is suffering is simply evil and criminal, says our investigator.
Fake website of the Dubai Sheikh A Qassimi and Malawi Delegation to Dubai in 2022
The Investigator Magazine digital footprint tracking shows that the documentation for the fuel deal was mainly done in Malawi. A fake website, http://www.hhshkahmedqassimi.com/index.html, was created on 12 September 2022, a few months before the deal emerged. Zamba associate Eva Kamwangala and Transport Minister Jacob Hara were pictured in Dubai.
Former NOCMA Ceo Hellen Buluma told Parliament Zamba personally asked her to allocate fuel deal to Eva and parliament has failed to get the SPC version of events after she successfully dodged it and the committee joined in singing her praise, allegedly, after exchange of some unknown favours.
Buluma revealed that Zamba was pressuring her into awarding fuel supply contracts to a list of companies without following procedures in November 2022, when she appeared before parliament’s Public Appointments Committee (PAC).
The meeting gave Buluma room to clarify and give a detailed account of the points she raised as reasons for quitting in her resignation letter.
Buluma said she was forced to allegedly involve a person identified as ‘Chief’ from Nigeria and a Malawian-based motivational speaker, Evalista Kamwangala.
She revealed she was called by the board chair to attend an urgent fuel supply meeting. The meeting included MERA CEO Henry Kachaje, Immigration Chief Brigadier General Kalumo, Dr Chaima from the Ministry of Trade, Secretary to the Treasury(ST) McDonald Mafuta Mwale, and some gentlemen believed to be interested potential suppliers who were to supply on a local currency basis.
“ I dashed there they said kuli supplier kunoko atipatsa mmakwacha bwerani nsangansanga, dashed there I went into the board room and in that meeting I saw people one sort of Asian man and another guy, South African I think he introduced himself as a such,” Buluma explained.
She said at the time she was surprised at the composition of the people in the meeting considering it was a fuel supply discussion.
“There were discussions around how they were going to bring in the fuel, and I said we need to have a process, and I shared the process that we do when it comes to fuel in Malawi, and they said Nonono, that’s going to take too long, we will do the fastest for us to bring the fuel.
Buluma went on to share, “And then what surprised me was when they said, how are we going to share the profits?”
This prompted her to ask Kachaje and the ST what the gentlemen meant by the profits. Both expressed ignorance, citing they did not know anything as they had also just been called to the meeting.
Parliamentarians in the committee have not responded to The Investigator Magazine’s query on the matter.
The request is the same, dated July 2022, and was delayed after Buluma exposed the matter, and the confusion in trying to push for the deal “nsangasanga” has revealed the evil intentions as the Banks were informed to guarantee the deal the same day the board granted approval.
The Investigator Magazine can conclude that the K128 billion is the same one Zamba had pushed to Buluma. This shows that most of the deals implicating this administration are being reworked to hoodwink Malawians.
No Dubai Royalty, comparisons of Sheikh A Qassimi genuine and fake offices
Malawi is a crime scene- Paul Mphwiyo, the mastermind and fugitive in the infamous cashgate scandal, once correctly predicted. The OPC and NOCMA are now perpetuating criminality as their quest for short cuts and deals which they will benefit from could have diplomatic ramifications.
The logo for the office is a dark eagle with open wings.
The genuine website for Sheikh A Qassimi is https://alqassimioffice.com. It has a layer of top officials, namely H.E. Khameis Abdulla Alhmoudi as Group General Manager, Ahmed Hussein Alhosani as Group Deputy General Manager and group CEO, and Ali Ahmed Alhamed as Public Relations and Media Manager. The executive Team consists of 12 people, and none of them deal with fuel supply.
“We have no contract in Malawi; we do not supply fuel, thanks,” said an official who answered the private office line number on Monday, 2 September 2024.
The fake website uses the official UAE logo, but it’s lighter in colour, which is the same as the one on NOCMA documents, which might have been lifted wrongly. The fake website to which OPC and NOCMA are expected to send K128 billion is http://www.hhshkahmedqassimi.com/index.html and is flagged as unsecure.
Its executive team includes H.H. Dr. Tomazs Zaleski, chairman of the Board, H.E. Dr. Salwa Abdulaziz Zein, CEO, and Dunston Pereira, COO.
Further digital research shows that Al Qassimis are also members of the royal house of Al Qasimi, who rule the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. In India, they have been called out for selling UAE banking licenses to Ponzi schemes on the side. That’s in addition to selling diplomatic documents.
Another family member, Sheikh Saoud, had financial dealings with fraudsters that were said to have been made easier by the fact his father, Sheikh Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi, founded United Arab Bank. Faisal Al Qassimi is the bank’s Chairman of the Board of Directors and largest shareholder.
President Chakwera and fraudsters
Today, The Investigator Magazine can reveal that the State House, Office of the President and Cabinet, and National Oil Company (NOCMA) are all engaged in fleecing Malawians K50 billion as advance payment to a non-existent company.
The money is not going to any Dubai oil company but to shell companies of Malawian senior politicians and government officials who are hell-bent on stealing and stealing and stealing the already depleted public resources. The deal, if President Lazarus Chakwera has any integrity, should be cancelled forthwith as it is pure theft.
“The money is not going to any fuel company but a foreign exchange bureau in Lilongwe. Government procurements are paid to suppliers, not third parties. The fact that the company does not exist tells you the deal is worse than the butchery fertiliser saga. This government wants to buy fuel from a foreign exchange bureau; this is very cheap theft,” charged a senior government official.
Senior Government officials have allegedly been exerting pressure on NOCMA to facilitate the deal, which has no basis as the company has not advertised tenders for supply and has already run contracts with suppliers—some of whom now owe K800 billion, which needs to be settled.
The K128 billion fuel deal first reported by The Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) is a recycled 2022 attempt to get government money, buy fuel, supply and get the last loot and share hiding behind a shell company in Dubai.
Dubai Royalty Sheikh Ahmed Bin Faisal Al Qassimi does not deal with fuel supplies, and in a telephone call to his office on Monday, 2 September 2024, denied any deal in supplying fuel to Malawi, saying it “has had no contract or contact in Malawi.”
One of the associates of the deal has a picture with President Chakwera, which is telling the level of State House involvement. The government has yet to cancel the deal despite the exposure of its criminal and illegal nature.
