…Police to spend K362 million on breathalysers, speed cameras
Malawi Government has awarded K6 billion contract to Creck Hardware for supply of transformers and K224 billion to Prime Insurance for supply of insurance services for Malawi Police vehicles.
This is according to notifications of intention to awards contracts released by the Malawi Police and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM).
According to the notice from ESCOM dated 2 March this year, Creck Hardware has been awarded all four lots of a tender to supply 11kv transformers to the electricity supplier. The four lots are totaling about K5.9 billion.
A notice from the police dated 11 January, 2024 indicates that Creck Hardware, which is owned by Clifford Kawinga, has also been awarded a K300 million contract to supply breathalyzers and speed cameras. Another lot of the same contract but worth about K63 million has been awarded to Applied Metrology of Lilongwe.
In the same notice, Malawi Police said it has awarded a K224 billion contract to Prime Insurance to supply insurance services to motor vehicles and motorcycles owned by the Malawi Police.
Malawi Police and ESCOM are some of the government funded entities which have been involved in procurement scandals in recent years.
It was revealed in 2022 that the electricity supply company lost K14 billion between 2014 and 2018 due to questionable procurements, including the purchase of envelopes worth K26 million.
As for the Malawi Police, there have been several cases of senior officers allegedly receiving bribes from bidders. In 2022, former Inspector General of Malawi Police George Kainja was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau on allegations that he received instructions from businessperson Zuneth Sattar to initiate procurement of 350,000 food ration packs worth K8 billion. In return, Kainja reportedly received a vehicle and K8 million.
