The Government of Japan has committed about K126 million to fund detailed project design works for the improvement of the Old town and Kanengo substations in Lilongwe.
According to a statement from the Japanese Embassy in Malawi, His Excellency Satochi Iwakiri, Ambassador of Japan to Malawi and Felix Mlusu, Minister of Finance have signed for the implementation of the project for the improvement of substations in Lilongwe
The project seeks to prepare actual work for rehabilitation and reinforcement of the substations for the provision of reliable and stable supply of electricity for more sustainable economic and social development in the city. The Project will be executed by Escom.
The Ministry of Energy has been tasked to supervise implementation of the project. Due to COVID-19 prevalence, no physical meeting was convened. Mlusu and Ambassador Iwakiri just exchanged notes and the signed documents
The High Court in Blantyre has finally ruled in favor of the petitioners in the 2019 election cases for the Nsanje North, Central and Chikwawa East constituencies with an order to have fresh elections held within 60 days.
In the court battle that has taken months of hearing, Enock Chizuzu of MCP was disputing the election of Esther Mcheka Chilenje while in Nsanje Central constituency MCP’ Kafandikhale Mandevana was challenging Francis Kasaila. In Chikwawa East, Foster Thipiwa of MCP filed a case against eligibility of Sam Khumbanyiwa as an MP for the constituency.
Esther Mcheka Chilenje and Francis Kasaila belong to DPP while Sam Khumbanyiwa is for UDF.
The ruling comes barely a day after Malawians celebrated one year of court’s victory over a historic presidential election case.
One of the well known ‘cheji golo’ politicians has done it again .Former Energy minister and Lilongwe Msinja north member of parliament Bintony Kutsaira has dumped the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
In a brief letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Kutsaira is not stating reasons for his decision to leave the party that once gave him the powerful position of secretary general.
Bintony Kutsaira
He says in the letter that he wants the Speaker to relocate him from DPP bench in parliament to that of independent legislators.
There are strong rumours that he is rejoining the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
The former National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) boss has been a political nomad , he once cut ties with MCP where he once served as a mmber of parliament. Kutsaila joined the DPP where late president Bingu wa Mutharika gave him the position of deputy minister of Agriculture.
After Mutharika’s death in 2012, he joined the Peoples Party soon after former president Joyce Banda was sworn in as president.
After the DPP came back to power after ousting the Peoples Party at the ballot box in 2014, Kutsaira rejoined the DPP.
Now that the MCP is in government, he is rejoining the party.
President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera says Malawi is now able to sequence Coronavirus, the development he said reduces the country’s overdependence to South African laboratories.He was speaking at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, on Sunday during an address to the Nation on the status of the war on COVID-19.
The Malawi leader said with the sequencing capabilities, Malawi’s scientists at the Malawi Liverpool Welcome Trust laboratories are able to tell the virus’s variables.Dr. Chakwera also said that in the past week, statistics indicate that the country has registered a downward trend of COVID-19 positivity rate from 37 percent to 29 percent.
President Chakwera
The President said this is heavily attributed to good collaboration among different institutions mandated to champion enforcement of COVID-19 preventive guidelines in the country. However the Malawi leader emphasised on the need for the vast majority not to hide the disease from health officials. He said reporting to health officials can help health workers make timely intervention in saving lives of those found with the virus.
He added, “Government is making efforts to ensure that the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccine be despatched in the country by end of February, with the first consignment largely targeting frontline health workers as well as the elderly.”Dr. Chakwera also disclosed that following his directive to have 1380 medical personnel employed , so far 1128 have been identified and are now waiting for letters of appointment.
Meanwhile, the President has expressed satisfaction on levels of progress made so far by the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders following his directive to set up field hospitals for COVID-19 patients as well as increase testing sites and kits. He has since called for continued collaboration.
An investigation by a Norwegian organisation has revealed that the majority of the money that the country donates to Malawi for the disabled people is misused.A total of 95% of Norwegian aid to a project that would improve the situation of the disabled in Malawi has allegedly been misused.
In the revelations covered by Norwegian Newspaper Norway Today .The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) believes that there is reason to ask whether the development assistance project under the auspices of the Atlas Alliance has yielded any results at all.
The Atlas Alliance is an umbrella organization that coordinates the assistance work of Norwegian organizations that work for the disabled and their rights in Malawi
In the spring of 2019, some suspicions appeared about the Atlas Alliance’s Malawi projects.
Investigation revealed breaches of contract valued at more than 89 million kwacha at the Atlas Alliance’s former Malawian partner organization Fedoma.
The investigators also received tips that there was “serious misuse of money” in Podcam, another Malawian organization that the Atlas Alliance collaborated with. Podcam received billions of Kwacha from Norway since 2003.
When the issues were investigated, it turned out that the organization completely lacked an overview and internal control of the funds, according to the investigation.
Undocumented cash withdrawals were found, suppliers could not be traced, invoices and bank statements turned out to be forged, and the employees worked actively to prevent the auditors from gaining access to the documentation.
The investigation only covered the period from 2017 to 2019, when 80 Million Kwacha was transferred to Podcam. According to the investigators, 95% of these funds could have been misused – based on the lacking documentation.
The Atlas Alliance has broken off cooperation with Podcam and has paid the sum back to the Norwegian Treasury last year. Norad believes the organization should have detected the abuse much earlier.
Program advisor Anders Strømsodd Hosar in the Atlas Alliance agrees.“We have learned a lot from this case, and we have implemented a number of measures to strengthen our internal control,” He describes it as a serious case and says that they have spent a lot of resources to get to the bottom of it.
