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| National |
| Fachi, Mbewe in $7.6m scam |
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by
Mabvuto Banda, 28 November 2003
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15:23:31
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A probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau found that Attorney General Peter Fachi and former Home Affairs Minister Patrick Mbewe were at the centre of the scam where government awarded a $7.6 million Land Rover contract to Apex Car Sales, circumventing franchise holders City Motors.
The bureau then recommended to President Bakili Muluzi to punish the two and Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute them for abuse of office and ignoring tender procedures, Nation Online investigations have revealed.
ACB deputy director Alex Nampota said on Monday the President did not act on the recommendations delivered to him in person by former director Gilton Chiwaula on May 25, 2001.
And, when contacted for comment on Wednesday, DPP Fahad Assani said he did not find compelling evidence to prosecute the two.
ACB said it referred the prosecution to the DPP because it is not within its jurisdiction.
“We found the two to have acted in a manner conducive or connected to corrupt practices contrary to section 10(1) of the Corrupt Practices Act. They were also found to have abused their offices contrary to section 95 of the Penal Code,” Nampota said.
Findings in the report accessed at the Bureau in Blantyre, show that Fachi made changes which allowed Apex Car Sales to get promissory notes (payment) before delivery of goods and removed the financing bank as an agent or trustee of government.
The report says that the changes in the contract also committed government to paying 12 percent interest, payable within 30 days, if government delayed to pay for any reason.
In addition, clause 4.5 of the changed contract says “if government released promissory notes to Apex Car Sales, it was bound to pay whether or not Apex delivered the vehicles or not”.
The report said Chief Parliamentary Draughtsman Anthony Kamanga and his deputy Allan Chinula objected to the changes but the Attorney General ignored their advice and effected the changes allegedly proposed by Apex Car Sales.
In a written statement to the ACB, Kamanga said he advised Fachi against the changes because he feared they would expose government to manipulation. But, according to ACB, on January 2000, Fachi ordered Chinula to change the contract after a meeting with Apex managing director Bashir Natvhani, which Chinula attended.
ACB also found Mbewe’s conduct unethical for inviting Natvhani to attend a meeting on September 10, 1999 to discuss the contract which benefited Apex.
Mbewe was also found to have exerted undue influence by instructing his Principal Secretary Maxwell Mkumbwa on August 11, 1999 to go and inspect the Apex premises and collect quotations before the tendering of the contract.
But Assani felt ACB failed to establish wrong-doing on the part of the two ministers.
Argued the DPP: “In their own report they said that the two ministers did not commit any corruption. Okay that aside, they think the two ministers abused their offices, firstly that Honourable Patrick Mbewe gave the contract to Apex and secondly, that Fachi signed the legal opinion authorising the release of Land Rovers to government.
“Did they commit any misconduct by merely taking decisions for the Land Rovers to be supplied to government or is there something else? I remember that the answer I was getting was that something more could have been done—but then what is that suspicion, and they [ACB] had no answer.
“Now I looked at it as unsafe on my part as the DPP to take matters where there is only suspicion and evidence does not exist.”
Confidential correspondence involving Ministry of Finance, Home Affairs, Apex Car Sales, City Motors and Rover International, copies of which Nation Online accessed, show that Fachi disregarded advice from his subordinates not to change the contract and that Mbewe exerted undue influence by instructing his staff to collect quotations from Apex and inviting Apex to every government meeting discussing the contract.
The original contract number 789/99 obtained by Weekend Nation before it was changed, stipulated that delivery of the vehicles was due in 6 months—that is from September 31, 1999 (the day it was signed) to March 31, 2000.
Clause 4 in the contract said that promissory notes would be completed on behalf of the government by the financing bank and released to the supplier only on presentation of an invoice of goods shipped and relevant transport documents.
Both Kamanga and Chinula confirmed this week that the ACB summoned them in 2001 to be interviewed over the changes in the Land Rover contract and that they opposed the changes.
Fachi on Thursday declined to make any comments on the allegations in the ACB report.
“I can’t comment on those allegations because I will be tabling an ACB issue on the Corrupt Practices Bill tomorrow [Friday] in Parliament . So, I cannot start commenting on that now,” he said.
Mbewe could not be reached to comment on the allegations as he was reported sick.
ACB alleges that the London-based agent —Tradex Limited — which Apex used to cash the notes at 45 percent rate does not exist and that Apex is not registered anywhere in the world, including Malawi.
“We believe Tradex was created for the convenience of the deal,” Nampota said.
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