Asian businessman given 7 days to pay back K500 mln in another Malawi police deal
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]zuzu based rights group, Youth and Society, has yet again gone after another Asian of Malawian origin demanding that he pays back over half a billion kwacha he was paid by the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to supply uniforms.
Karim Abdul, trading as Africa Commercial Agency, Gratolite, Lido Electrical, Kasco Enterprise, L&G Tools and Engineering, Novatech Engineering, has been given seven days in which to pay back K585,940, 743.18 he received from the police service.
Apparently, Abdul never supplied the police uniforms as per the contract.
This is the latest in Youth and Society’s (Yas) efforts to clean up and expose the rot at police headquarters in Lilongwe. Last week, the rights group scored a win when the High Court froze bank accounts belonging to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Mr Zameer Karim — owner of Pioneer Investments, a company which was awarded a K2.8 billion food supply contract.
Pioneer Investments paid K145 million into the DPP account whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika.
On Thursday, Yas, used the same lawyers to demand that Abdul Karim pays back over K500 million he fraudulently received from Malawi police.
Their claim was based on an investigative audit dating back to 10 years ago into the management of procurement and distribution of the goods by the police service.
According to the audit report, out of 9 companies that supplied the goods to the police service, seven belonged to Abdul Karim
“Our client (Yas) contends that you fraudulently but/an knowingly received and had received tax-payers’ money in the K585,940,743.18 that you were not and remain not entitled to have received, retained and or have use of it,” reads the letter in part.
“The Report records serious fraudulent transactions committed by your firms with your full knowledge and participation…” reads the letter from Ritz Attorney at Law to Mr Karim.
Below are the six ways Karim with the help of Malawi Police made over K500 million from nothing.
- INVOICING GOODS NEVER SUPPLIED TO MALAWI POLICE: Under six of Karim’s companies, six invoices worth K170 million [K170,791,725.00] and Malawi Police paid but the goods were never delivered.
- EXPRESS CHARGES: The letter says Karim overcharged for goods delivered to MPS by K295, 756,604.40 despite that other firms supplied goods of better quality and more durable
- OVERPAYMENTS: “After matching all the goods supplied to against the total payment made by MPS, the Report established that you (Karim) were overpaid by K109 million,” reads the report in part.
- PAYMENTS FOR GOODS NOT SUPPLIED: The letter says Malawi Police Service paid Karim over K106 million for goods Karim never supplied
- RETURNED GOODS BUT INVOICES NOT REVERSED: Malawi Police Service returned goods to Mr Karim to which he duly acknowledged. “Yet you did not reverse invoices for the returned goods worth K10 million
“On behalf of the people of Malawi , our client demands immediate repayment of the same and in any event within 7 days from the date hereof [with interest the thereon at 10 percent over and above normal commercial bank base lending rate as applicable from time to time since you improperly received these funds].
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