HENRY BAKUWA APPOINTED AS BWB ACTING CEO

Government has appointed Henry Bakuwa, as Blantyre Water Board (BWB) acting Chief Executive Officer in place of Andrew Thawe who is now on forced leave.

Mr. Henri Bakuwa joined BWB on 15th December, 2010 as Director of Finance. He has a wealth of experience in Finance and Accounting acquired from 22 years of work in the private and public sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accountancy) from the University of Malawi and he is Chartered Accountant.

Mr Bakuwa is now the acting CEO following Thawes absence who is also currently being investigated by Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) on corruption allegations and accusations of offering girlfriends better positions.

ACB commenced the investigations following complaints that he abused his powers and after employees staged a three-week strike.

The investigation earlier on instituted by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the Office of Director of Procurement centred on supply of metres, pipes and other materials without following procurement procedures. Meanwhile Water Employees Trade Union and Blantyre Water Board workers have commended government which they petitioned on August 21st for resolving the matter that led to the strike.

Tony Chiphwanya, Secretary General for the Union said they were happy the authorities agreed to remove Thawe for his failure to run the affairs of the board. Chiphwanya said: Our stand on the matter is that we don’t want Mr. Thawe to return. He has failed us. The end of the strike is expected to ease water problems Blantyre communities have had in the past three weeks.