PAC calls for inquiry into the East Bridge fertilizer deal

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called off an inquiry into the East Bridge fertilizer deal saying there is no documentation showing that public funds were spent on the deal.

PAC summoned Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, Government Contracting Unit, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance and Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) to carry out investigations on the fertilizer deal that the government entered with East Bridge of Romania.

In the deal, East Bridge is expected to supply 300 000 metric tonnes of fertilizer to the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) while the government will have to pay for the fertilizer by supplying East Bridge with assorted farm produce. East Bridge is looking for soya beans, groundnuts, rice pigeon peas, sorghum, maize, sugar and cotton.

PAC was slated to start meeting the stakeholders today starting with Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda who is reported to have been consulted by the government on the East Bridge fertilizer deal and cleared the government to go ahead.

However, Nyirenda did not show up for the meeting this morning.

PAC then held a meeting in camera where the members resolved to cancel the inquiry.

Speaking in an interview after the meeting, PAC chairperson Mark Botomani said the committee went through all the documents that the stakeholders submitted and did not find any documentation showing that the government spent money on the deal.

He said the committee wanted to check if public resources were spent on the deal.
Botomani added that the committee cannot proceed with the inquiry as PAC looks into public resources that have been spent.