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Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Councillor for Blantyre City Soche East Ward Leonard Chimbanga has blasted Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for calling off an inquiry into the controversial fertiliser deal between Malawi Government and a purported Romanian firm, East Bridge.
On Tuesday, PAC summoned Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda and officials from the Government Contracting Unit, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and Malawi Law Society (MLS) as part of the investigations.
But after the meeting, PAC through its chair Mark Botomani announced that it has cancelled the the investigations on the matter.
He said the committee has established that no coin was spent on the deal.
Reacting to the move Chimbanga suspected foul play on the matter.
“It is naive for Botomani to think simply because money didn’t leave a certain account then we should call it a day. But I am not surprised it reminds of another Tonse Minister who was defending Tonse’s extravagance while on UNGA trip once said “When we were in the USA we were using visa cards hence no Forex was lost, we loaded our cards with Malawi Kwacha”.
Sometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry when you hear such reasoning. And yes these are the kinds of people who are sitting in key decision making positions. I am still waiting for the Leader of the Opposition to make his position known on PAC’s recent decision. When the public rises he must not change tune. The way I see it, people should rise up and call for the dissolution of PAC if they still don’t proceed with the investigations,” wrote Chimbanga.
Meanwhile, the Malawi Law Society has also faulted PAC for calling off the investigations on the matter.
