…SPC gave bogus Dubai royal contracts worth 40% of national budget
…100% subsidy supplied by one company
…cash to invest in gold mine for export
President Lazarus Chakwera’s appointee Colleen Zamba is willing to play yoyo with public money by accepting to pay K500 billion-being 50% of the K1 trillion fertiliser contract she has granted to the bogus Dubai Royal Sheikh Ahmed Al Qassimi in a wide spread attempt to raise campaign funds for President Chakwera’s re-election bid, The Investigator Magazine can reveal.
Despite damning evidence of attempted hit that would have seen the bogus Sheikh walk away with fuel and fertiliser deals well over K2 trillion kwacha, almost 40% of the K5.9 trillion national budget- President Chakwera has no intention of taking any action, a senior official accompanying Chakwera in the USA has confided in us.
Alarmingly, officials from OPC, NOCMA and Ministry of Agriculture have distanced themselves from the deals, saying they were brought by the SPC to top management and no institution Internal Procurement Committees (IPDC) was involved despite proceeding with attempting to ask banks to guarantee payments to the deals.
Nobody has ever met Sheikh Ahmed Al-Qassimi, and Malawian documents using fake address
There is somewhere a controversial Sheikh Al Qassimi but the one the SPC Zamba signed a contract one has never met any Malawian save for his proxies who have East European names.
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.
The fake website uses the official UAE logo, but it’s lighter in colour, which is the same as the one on SFFRFM documents, which might have been lifted wrongly. The fake website to which OPC and NOCMA are expected to send 50% of the K1 trillion deal is http://www.hhshkahmedqassimi.com/index.html and is flagged as unsecure. This executive team includes H.H. Dr. Tomazs Zaleski, chairman of the Board, H.E. Dr. Salwa Abdulaziz Zein, CEO, and Dunston Pereira, COO.
All the documentation do not have office location save for Dubai and a mobile number- a characteristic of a fake or scammer which seems to be an order of the day under President Chakwera.
None of Zamba’s foreign exchange bureau- QLV Digital FX Directors are listed on both websites of the company mentioned as a subsidiary raising flags as to how can Malawi Government pay to an entity that cannot be verified save for SPC Zamba and her close associates President Chakwera’s advisor Ephraim Chibvunde.
Chibvunde has been seen in the company of Marcin Lapa who also met President Chakwera and boasted of a gold mining license in Kasungu.
The money fleeced from the fuel and fertiliser deal will first be put in mining and then gold exported to Dubai- a scam only State House and OPC of Chakwera can fall for, as setting a gold mine, according to experts can takes 10 to 20 years before actual mining, likely beyond Chakwera’s term of office.
“If they are not being scammed, they are the scammers. Fake websites, unknown persons and proxies that cannot be traced. Lapa calls himself Professor Doctor, that’s how he signed the letters from his company to SFFRFM. That should be suspicious for any intelligent person,” said a financial expert who has handled the documents.
600,000 tons of fertiliser- the largest contract for a company without track record
Professor Dr. Marcin Lapa MBA, LL.B, self christened as President of the Board of the Office of the Sheikh was pleased on 25th April 2024 to “announce that following several new international agreements, our office is poised to facilitate international trade transactions using local currency.”
The pleased professor doctor offered to supply 600,000 metric tons of fertiliser without any track record in the field which was said to be worth K540 billion (USD214 500 000.00) for NPK and K560 billion (USD223 500 000).
They offered a sweet deal that would see Government advance half for each consignment in Malawi kwacha before the fertiliser was delivered, a very risky play using public resources. Unlike the East Bridge Scam which at least kept changing its sources from Romania to Turkey then Beira, the Dubai fake firm does not indicate where it will source its fertiliser from.
“Its unbelievable that one woman and a few others can decide to stake K500 billion of public resources to a company that has no track record. Even the PPDA should be ashamed. SFFRFM, Ministry of Agriculture and OPC seem to form a cartel of those that want to steal from fertilisers every year. This is it,” said a worried Agriculture official.
In a letter dated 27 May 2024, Richard Chikunkhuzeni, SFFRFM CEO, referred to a letter dated 9 May 2024, which shows that the original expression of interest was to include a 120% payment cover for the commodity, which would have cost the government K1.1 trillion.
“We would like to inform you that SFFRFM has received a revised offer from the Office of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Al-Qassimi to supply 600,000 tonnes of fertiliser (300,000 tonnes Urea: 300,000 tonnes NPK). The revised term sheet has reduced the cash cover requirement from 120% to 100% as per attached email correspondence,” writes Chikunkhuzeni, who has been at the centre of all fertiliser procurement scandals with dubious suppliers.
Chikunkhuzeni tells the Secretary for Agriculture that the removal of the 20% would cost the bag K65,000 lower than the K80,000 on the market and adds the catch that has become the real explanation of these fake deals, “The transaction will also help to ease the country’s forex burden as the payment to the supplier will be in Malawi kwacha.”
The East Bridge Estates deal owned by fugitive Paul Mphwiyo was first allocated 600,000 tonnes to be supplied in the lots of 25,000 tons and paid in Malawi kwacha. Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale defended the fake deal with an Israel national that Malawians fronted. They had no capacity but promised President Chakwera 5,000 tonnes of fertiliser for each delivery, and they would liquidate it through proxy companies set up by MCP functionaries, according to a recorded boasting by the East Bridge Directors.
“As stated above, one of the conditions of the expression of interest is the payment of 100% cash cover in advance into an escrow account at Standard Bank in Malawi for each consignment of 25000 metric tonnes which will translate to around K32.5 billion per consignment. The SFFRFM does not currently have these huge cash cover requirements,” reads Chikunkhuzeni letter to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Public procurement laws do not provide cash advance payments for non-performed contracts. OPC’s perpetuation of this illegal arrangement should raise concerns about the safety of public finances under President Chakwera.
According to senior officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, at the behest of Zamba and Kawale, the Ministry approved the bizarre arrangement to pay an advance for undelivered commodities in a letter dated 19 August 2024, referenced as MOA/SEEFRM/HH/07-24/01, to the Director General of Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA).
Ministry of Agriculture writes to PPDA recommending another fertiliser scam
Under President Chakwera, the Ministry of Agriculture seems to have turned into the Ministry of Fertiliser thievery as every year it attempts to enter bogus arrangements in pretext of supplying fertilisers to Malawians.
This year the deal is with the fake Sheikh as he was allocated the entire lot for AIP raising questions if the top officials at the Ministry have lost their thinking capacity to risk the entire programme with one supplier who has never delivered a single grain of fertiliser.
Emanating from Zamba illegal MOU with the Sheikh, the Ministry approved the bizarre arrangement to pay an advance for undelivered commodities in a letter dated 19 August 2024, referenced as MOA/SEEFRM/HH/07-24/01, to the Director General of Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA).
“We are in an emergency situation demanding collaborated efforts to avert it. The Ministry would like to procure the much affordable fertiliser from Sheikh Al-Qassimi which will be paid in Malawi kwacha,” writes Medrina Mloza Banda, Secretary for Agriculture, attempting to use the current food shortages to justify the thievery.
So far a total of 11 children and 8 adults have died due to eating poisonous plants as they have no food but President Chakwera lieutenants seem to be obsessed with cuts from these illegal deals that would fill their already heft pockets.
Chakwera won’t act on Zamba, Ministers
Corruption by OPC and other agencies seem to be sanctioned by the President himself as those close to him have said he won’t be taking any action as he is convinced opposition is behind the revelations and leaking of documentation.
“Nothing will happen, keep writing. The deals are legitimate and will proceed,” challenged a Zamba associate. We are monitoring a parliamentarian who is said to be the main agent for the SPC to buy off public media.
Part 4: Zamba- the first SPC scandal checklist, from Energy to Fertiliser via Fuel and why she can’t be fired. Unmasking the owners of QLV Digital and OptCoin/Option Malawi. This weekend.
it seems like our president Lazarus Chakwera is sleeping on duty,and it shows he’s the one behind the Scammer