Northern Region vice president of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Jappie Mhango, has branded the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)-led administration as a “government of thieves”.
Mhango, who is also Rumphi North legislator, has urged Malawians to be vigilant, fearing that theft and abuse of public resources could worsen as MCP torchbearer President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is crisscrossing the country in search of votes in the September 2025 General Elections.
The Rumphi North lawmaker was reacting to revelations that the government has spent billions of taxpayers’ money on a road project that was never constructed in Rumphi district.
According to The Nation newspaper of Tuesday, September 17, 2024, the government has spent MK3 billion on what the paper has described as “nothing much to show for a 20-kilometre (km) road project”.
The paper reports that President Chakwera’s government engaged three contractors and a fourth one recently roped in for a 20km section of the Rumphi-Nyika Road between Chikwawa and Bembe in Rumphi District.
The project was initially projected to cost K5.1 billion for upgrading to bitumen in 2018, but will now see taxpayers coughing up to K29.9 billion.
When former president Peter Mutharika launched rehabilitation works on the section on July 12 2018, Mota-Engil Malawi was engaged at a contract sum of K5.1 billion. However, the contractor left the site after doing preliminary works on six kilometres and after being paid at least K1.7 billion.
Next on site was Zhenjing Communications Construction Company Ltd and China Railway No.5 who were contracted to undertake maintenance works and were paid K1.2 billion.
Then on April 8 2022, Roads Authority (RA) issued a notice of awarding the contract to Unik Construction Limited at a cost of K7.694 billion to complete rehabilitation works on the 20km patch. However, the third contractor too left the project site last year after also getting an undisclosed payment.
This time around, RA has engaged a fourth contractor, Plem Construction Limited, which will undertake the works at K24 billion, taking the total project cost to K29.9 billion representing about 580 percent cost increase.
But the delays have raised concerns that the road, which leads to one of the country’s beautiful natural wonders, Nyika National Park, could be one of the many projects that have become cash cows for the political elite.
As The Nation reports, Rumphi West parliamentarian Yona Mkandawire (independent) is not amused and described the financing situation as deplorable.
Mkandawire said it is a shame that the government continues to take people for granted.
“It’s simply a way of siphoning money. I called the RA board chair on the matter. I have made too much noise in Parliament, but there is nothing happening this far. We are worried because no funds are being provided and we may end up having the government pay the costs of demurrage. The Minister of Transport [Jacob Hara] said in Parliament that the road project will start next year, and we wonder, what will the contractor be doing on site this time without funds?” he asked.
Hara did not respond to The Nation calls on several attempts, but in January this year, he conceded that 28 road projects worth about K439.8 billion were bound to cost taxpayers more due to cost overruns as a result of delays in executing them.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, DPP vice president for the Northern Region said this is why his party is urging Malawians to avoid MCP during the next General Elections.
“When we say this government is stealing from the poor, some people think we are merely politicking. But here is the evidence of how President Chakwera and his government are skinning poor Malawians,” said Mhango.
Mhango cautioned voters against being fed lies from Chakwera and his henchmen, saying the current administration has proven that it does not care about the needs of the people.