Malawi Defence Force (MDF) awarded contracts to a company owned by Malawian of Asian origin without the company submitting bids, it has been alleged on a comprehensive social media news leak that Malawi24 has seen.
The report alleges that AKI Investments supplied military uniforms and other essential goods to Malawi Defence Force for three years allegedly “without any effort to bid”.
AKI Investment is owned by Mr Muneer Ismail, a businessperson alleged to have strong affiliations to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whose senior officials were arrested recently on fraud-related allegations.
It is believed that Muneer Ishmail was funding the party during the time it was in power between 2014 and 2020.
Recently, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) also expressed concern that the company was dominating MDF contracts and refused to approve another to the company.
The Director General Irene Mlewa signed and sealed the letter and she highlighted: “Reason of refusal is the supplier Has been having continued running contracts for the past three years. This we feel that it is very likely that value of money is not being realized on this procurement as no evidence has been provided to indicate that this requirement has been subjected to any competition for the past three years.”.
There was no immediate comment from the Ministry Defence officials and Malawi24 could not independently verify the allegations first shared by social media user only known as Dollex Jembe.
Malawi24 re-shares the report in verbatim as published by the Malawi Independent. The report is entitled AKI Investment New Kid on Armygate
“AKI Investment is today getting its name famous for the wrong things. The company based in Lilongwe took the Defence Force Commander General Vincent Nundwe to Dubai ,China and Hong Kong between 2017 and 2018 as a token of appreciation for getting four major contracts to supply military hardware worth billions of kwachas to the Malawi Defence Force I its peace keeping obligations.
Fayaz Muhammad the Managing Director and the Defence Force Commander were at “an all boys holiday” sampling all sorts of women in China and Hong Kong. Pictures and evidence is available for those in doubt or mere starters. It took the two gentlemen over five days of fun and “merry making” as the tax payers money was being eaten mercilessly.
The Commander being a darling of this company and within a shortwhile he sought another quotation for military drones that were needed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Soon the company became “specialised” in military hardware and equipment all this was because of the far East tour where the Defence Force Commander really had a good time. Its now time for a forensic audit on how these transactions were conducted since others within the rank and file of the Army kept documents. AKI Investment has to be under a microscope so that we see the truth. Funds meant for the purchasing of medical supplies and school equipment was channelled to AKI Investment.
General Vincent Nundwe has assured Fayaz Muhammad that he will sort everything out at the ACB and the pictures available will not cause any harm accordingto close family source of Fayaz Muhammadin Mzuzu where he started his businesses. Nundwe has assured the young man that his business empire is intact at the Mugg and Bean complex.
Today we are stopping here but the pictures available will be used next week and also the attempt by the Defence Force Commander to silence others who might be using the anti corruption bureau will be explained in our subsequent write.
