Everton Chimulirenii on ACB ladder over Fertilizer procurement scandal

De-factor Vice President and Former minister responsible for disaster management in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Everton Chimulirenji, has been implicated in a fertiliser procurement scandal.

This has been confirmed in a statement released by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seen by this publication.

According to the statement, on September 4 2020, the bureau received an allegation that in the 2019/2020 fiscal year, Chimulirenji, abused his office to influence Chief Commissioner of Prisons, Grace Wandika Phiri to instruct a Malawi Prison Service procurement officer to award a contract worth K200 million for the supply of fertiliser to Optichem without following procedures.

The bureau then conducted an investigation which established that Priwil General Dealers, a company belonging to Prince Henderson and Willy Herbert Chimulirenji, uttered false documents from Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Catholic Development Commission of Malawi (Cadecom), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and FDH Bank, in their bid document for a contract to supply fertiliser worth K76 million to Malawi Prison Service.

“The investigation also established that Henderson independently compiled the bid document with very minimal consultations with his partner, Willy Chimulirenji,” reads the statement in part.

The bureau has since arrested Henderson for giving false information to a person employed in the public service and uttering false documents.