Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawians could be in for another fertilizer debacle as details emerge about how President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance government’s ministers botched fertilizer deals and tried to get suppliers including “tithes” for the Tonse main partner Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
According to the Investigator Magazine blog, has accessed audios of calls from Malawi to Namibia and a letter from the supplier to Auzano Capital Management rejecting a new supplier who could have seen the price for commodity rise.
The blog says will release the audios on its new online iRadio to be launched within weeks which will reveal the identities of Ministers who made calls and suggested that a new supplier provide fertiliser to Nendongo Commercial Group.
An approval document for the designs
MCP officials scout for fertilizer
The chaos in the fertilizer supply started in 2021 when the government decided that only MCP affiliates and companies willing to sponsor the party should supply fertilizer.
The results have been disastrous. Apart from the Barkaat Butchery which cost Malawians K750 million and lots in Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirendas’s travels to London and Germany, kickbacks have been collected across suppliers.
The Investigator Magazine has the name of an official from MCP who claims he works on behalf of the OPC to solicit contracts. He traveled to Mozambique to arrange for fertilizer subsidy in August and he was asked to pay cash, which he could not.
The 2023 to 2024 supply season is already emerging as challenging after the Ministry of Agriculture opted to use a restricted tender system and suppliers only favorable to the government were awarded the contracts.
“Some suppliers were thought to be supporters of the opposition parties, though they have the capacity, they were dropped,” said our source at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Minister Sam Kawale is on record that the restricted tenders gave the contracts to companies that had low bids and had stocks of fertilizer within the country. The Investigator Magazine has documents indicating some of the selected suppliers had higher bids than others and had not supplied fertilizer before.
The bids for 2023/24 prices show Malawi Fertiliser Company was the cheapest supplying Urea in Lilongwe at 619.87 for Lilongwe only followed by Optichem (2000) Ltd was the lowest supplying in United States Dollars per metric ton with Urea document showing 620.34 for Blantyre only and the second one for NPK shows at 657.28 in Blantyre and 674.10 in Lilongwe, Blue Deebaj 683.45 for Blantyre and Lilongwe.
Farmers World quoted document Urea shows 652.97 for Lilongwe only and another 652.97 for Blantyre and NPK 695.45 for Blantyre 706.37 for Lilongwe and 732.82 for Mzuzu.
An unusual company is called Saidi Investment Limited which had three separate quotes, the Urea shows 700 for Blantyre, 868.73 for Lilongwe and 916 for Mzuzu, and another for 849.42 for Blantyre, 725 for Lilongwe and 750 for Mzuzu while its first quote being NPK lot for 725 in Blantyre only, then a second one for 868.73 for Blantyre, 897.68 for Lilongwe and 965.25 for Mzuzu.
Saidi Investment was back a third time with a single bid of 780 for Mzuzu only. Afriventure pegged 718 for Urea and 780 for NPK for both Blantyre and Lilongwe, and Chipala Investment bid was for NPK 795 for Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu.
Sealand Investment’s bid for Urea was 725 for Blantyre, 729 for Lilongwe, and 769 for Mzuzu while NPK was 825 for Blantyre and 829 for Lilongwe. ETG limited bid was 720 for Urea and NPK at 830.70 for Blantyre and Lilongwe.
Worldwide pegged its fertilizer Urea at 745.25 for Blantyre and 750.25 for Lilongwe while NPK was pegged at 946.70 for Blantyre and 965.25 for Lilongwe while Mediterranean Fertliser bid was 960 for all three cities’ deliveries.
Transglobe appears twice on Urea bidding 730 and 740 for Blantyre and Lilongwe respectively and another 750 for Lilongwe as separate bids. Midima bid was only for Urea at 735 for both Blantyre and Lilongwe, Chipiku stores at 745 for the same two cities, and Paramount Holding at 740 for Blantyre and Lilongwe and 770 for Mzuzu. Produce Mart bid for Urea at 880 and Zathu 907.34 for Lilongwe only. The rest were above US$1000.00
Nendongo fertilizer was asked to get fertilizer US$5 million more expensive.
On November 1, 2022, while Malawians were digesting the effect of the Butchery saga which had led to the firing of Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe four days earlier, two fertilizer deals were already in motion.
The infamous K273 billion East Bridge deal turned out into another opportunity to swindle public finances and the Nendongo Commercial Group worth K170 billion.
Nendongo had been promised that financing of the deal would be raised by a little-known Auzano Capital Management owned by a Zimbabwean Muruviri Kupara, which suddenly had been granted K700 billion worth of sovereign guarantees by Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe.
Nobody has indicated who identified Auzano Capital Management and is suspected to have links to a Malawian who deals with the Office of the President and Cabinet. Auzano money was to pay for the Nendongo deal worth K170 billion and this was confirmed by Mupara in a letter to Nendongo on 15th October 2022.
In an apparent reference to a telephone conversation, Nendongo Commercial Group owner Jonas Nendongo wrote Auzano Capital Management to reject its suggestion that it should buy 96,000 metric tons of fertilizer at a supplier SC General Trading which would push the price to US$710 from its original US$650 price.
“Nendongo Commercial Group cannot accept the suggestion of buying 96,000mt ton of urea from SC General Trading,” writes Nendongo in his letter a copy of which we have published.
SC General Trading according to our findings has been in touch with senior officials at the Office of the President and Cabinet and Ministry of Agriculture and Auzano Capital Management was redirected by a powerful Minister in MCP Government to tell Nendongo to buy from the supplier. Nendongo told Auzano to communicate to SFFFRM any changes and suggested price adjustments as it had already identified its suppliers with guarantees.
K6 billion prices, similar to what East Bridge is said to have offered some MCP gurus
Coincidentally, another set of audios reveals that East Bridge Estates Directors ranted that they have had access to senior government officials and that US$6 million would be realized from the deal to the ruling party.
The East Bridge bribe would be in the form of fertiliser of 5,000 tons each which would be supplied to one of the subsidy suppliers and then the company would make payments to legitimate companies owned by Ministers.
We will soon publish details of the alleged bribery offer and the companies mentioned. “Nendongo deal upgrade is almost the same amount 5.7 million dollars. This tells you that the target amount for each deal is about K5 billion,” our investigations analyst concludes.
Honeymoon over, MCP, Ministers in leaking documents competition
After The Investigator Magazine published the East Bridge Estates deal, Ministers were not pleased and fingers were pointed at internal sabotage as Nendongo who had another MCP official in Malawi as its representative was suspected to have engineered the leak.
“Everyone had their contract. Nendongo did not play ball. This was a pay back and East Bridge had a bigger supporter within the Ministry. Your guess is as good as mine on who leaked the Nendongo contract,” said a source. The fight has led to the cancellation of both contracts and each side is picking up pieces while Malawians will have to wait a while for fertiliser.
“Fertiliser procurement should be done by an independent professional body. Too much politics and some people are using it to fleece suppliers. The fact that the government wanted it in secret should tell you the story,” suggested a procurement official in Government.
No fertilizer yet, last year suppliers did not pay
Some suppliers we approached indicate they are yet to release their fertilizer as they are waiting for last year’s payments after the botched-up procurement.
“We were promised a dollar rate but the money has not been paid. We can’t give them a new commodity,” said the supplier.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to our questions and days after it said there were enough stocks of maize it turned around and admitted it was lying- there is less than enough maize in the country.
Should suppliers fail to release the commodity by October, a repeat of the 2022/23 farming season could spell doom for farmers who already 1 million have been removed from the program despite an increase in poverty rates in the country.
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