ACB asked to probe granting of MalTIS to SA firm in partnership with Movesa

* The suppliers of the MalTIS involve South African firm Fischer Consultants and Movesa as a Malawian partner

* The contract was granted over six years ago but failed to meet three deadlines since 2018 to hand over to government

* Failure to hand over the system “seems to be a way of siphoning money by some corrupt individuals

* In collaboration with the foreign Consultants South African firm Fischer Consultants and Movesa

By Duncan Mlanjira

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been asked by a concerned citizen to investigate the sole motor vehicle blank number plate importation contract made in 2010 for Motor Vehicle Spares and Accessories (Movesa), the complainant also asks if the process of granting the supply of Malawi Traffic Information System (MalTIS) be probed as well.

The suppliers of the MalTIS involve South African firm Fischer Consultants and Movesa as a Malawian partner, which was granted over six years ago but failed to meet three deadlines since 2018 to hand over to government.

In the petition to the ACB, the complainant says the “system was supplied without any tendering process” and that “red flags were raised back in 2016 during a meeting with stakeholders as to how the same individual who is the sole importer of number plates could now supply the system to government”.

The petitioner, who did not indicate their name, also shares a concern that the red flag raised in 2016 questioned a “serious conflict of interest” on the part of Movesa following its subsidiary AutoTec being granted license as an outsource motor vehicle inspection garage.

This arrangement being deemed as a serious conflict of interest by the stakeholders in 2016, was allowing Movesa use a MalTIS system it is in partnership with Fischer for its gains and having an upper hand over the whole process.

In June, we reported that what was raised as reg flags during that 2016 stakeholders meeting — which Movesa was in attendance — has now come to pass as the local garages are being made to pay to access the MalTIS.

The consultants Movesa & Fischer Consulting, still cling on to the MalTIS and the complainant to the ACB alleges that failure to hand over the system “seems to be a way of siphoning money by some corrupt individuals” in collaboration with the Consultants.

However, when contacted in June this year, owner of Movesa, Moshin Salim distanced his company from the MalTIS system, saying the logistics partnership he had with Fischer Consortium ended last year.

Yet in his response to our queries in June, former spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Andrew Mthiko — who was in attendance at the 2016 consultative meeting as well as former ACB Director General Lucas Kondowe — kept referring Movesa and Fischer Consortium as the official consultants.

During discussions, as according to the minutes we have, the stakeholder garages pointed they were reluctant to invest so much in vehicle inspection equipment until they get an assurance or commitment that they will be licensed when they meet all requirements.

They also wanted the government’s protection in terms of number of lanes licensed to each garage; number of garages licensed and also a provision of an incentive in the form of a tax holiday. This was to make sure that they should be able to recoup the return on their investment.

A source privy to the petition presented to the ACB, said huge sums of money are required to meet the requirements needed to be granted the operating licences but it’s quite “disheartening that government is being held ransom by the foreign builders of the system”.

“After meeting all requirements that involve spending huge sums of money, why do we still have to pay to access the government system also at a huge cost?” questioned our source.

“It’s very perplexing that the government is failing to control this arrangement because the consultants are still clinging on to the system and dictating the concerned garages.”

Our source implores on civil society organisations if they could also “pick up this matter of national concern by asking for answers from Movesa” — that include selling at inflated charges of substandard number plates against the Malawi Standard MS 639-1.

“The MalTIS must be handed over to government and the importation of blank number plates must be revisited as quickly as possible to bring sanity to the industry.”

The source also indicated that the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) seems to have run out of blank number plates.

He also indicated that AutoTech was granted license to operate as an outsource vehicle inspection garage in 2016 long before it had been in operational for two years as the legal requirement for DRTSS to consider approval of licence.

When contacted a fortnight ago if Auto Tech is also being billed to access MalTIS since Movesa’s partnership with Fischer was terminated, the owner Salim responded in what seemed to be a cagey response: “We pay for any services provided by the consultants.”