Member of Parliament for Nsanje Lalanje Gladys Ganda has faulted Government for awarding goat supply contracts to expensive suppliers, saying the move is an insult to Malawians and the deals smell of corruption.
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) has announced intention to award goat supply contracts to AWS Trucking which has been allocated K836.932,500 as well as ASIP and A Investments whose contract is K462,000,000. The two companies will reportedly supplying goats at K41,000 each.
According to Ganda, there were 53 qualified and these were therefore asked to provide bid security of K10 million each. Some of the bidders had placed their prices between K28,000 and K32,000.
Ganda, who is a member of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and shadow Minister of Trade, questioned why DODMA left out those with cheaper prices and chose the expensive bidders.
She also suggested that Government should have used the local councils to buy the goats direct from the farmers in the designated areas of delivery.
“This could have reduced the cost fairly and it would have empowered the local farmers unlike what is happening here where the 2 companies that are being earmarked to be given the contracts, will go and buy from farmers poorly with as little as K10 000 yet the same goat is attracting K41 000 from Government. This is total theft of poor Malawians’ tax money and I call upon the Minister of Finance to intervene and halt this deal.
“Buying direct from the farmers is much better to empower them economically and to spur economic activities because many farmers will sell them in view of the attractive pricing,” she wrote in a statement yesterday.
Ganda further claimed one of the hired suppliers is a company that deals in trucking.
She said: “It is the same as construction company being involved in supplying maize. Where is the logic? This is an insult to Patriotic Malawians and it shows that some people are selfish and have no mercy for the suffering Malawians.”
Government wants to provide goats to people in several areas as part of the post Cyclone Idai and Kenneth emergency recovery and resilience project
