Member of Parliament for Nsanje Lalanje who is also Chairperson of Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament Gladys Ganda on Thursday May 27 cautioned fellow Members of Parliament (MPs) on why Lake Oil Company should be awarded a contract to supply fuel to Malawi.
Ganda who once served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer for NOCMA before joining active politics differed with all other MPs on the motion to adopt a NOCMA report which is accommodating Lake Oil Company of Tanzania which Ganda said it is battling bankruptcy for failing to settle debts of over thirty million United States dollars.
Ganda an accomplished banker with Masters Degree in Business Administration and has worked for National Bank in different managerial portfolios for decades wondered how a country can award a contract to a company that failed to clear its own fuel using a letter of credit on top of failing to pay the commissioning of a rehabilitated Malawi Cargo Centre.
“What is happening is so strange in the August House. The issue of Lake Oil Company is all over the internet . Why can’t members simply google it and get to the bottom of this company which this House wants to defend at the expense of poor Malawians? I have no problem with the rest of the companies that have been shortlisted but a company that is well known to be accomplished defaulter like Lake Oil Company must not get the blessings of this House”, Ganda fumed.
Ganda requested the Natural Resources Committee of Parliament to do a due diligence if they do not want to regret in future.
She also advised the Anti Corruption Bureau(ACB) to investigate NOCMA and Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ( MERA ) because she observed that NOCMA flouted procedures by skipping MERA straight to PPDA in order to get approval. But strangely the House has adopted the report.
