Malawi government tightens security at Salima sugar facility
Malawi government has tightened security at a sugar processing facility currently under construction in Salima.
This follows reports of theft of construction materials at the site, which last month led to the arrest of 10 police officers.
In an interview on Monday when the media visited the site and other projects under Greenbelt Initiative (GBI), Acting Coordinator for the initiative, Henrie Njoloma, said the secretariat engaged a number of officials to ensure security at the construction site.
“We have been having a problem of theft on this site. But currently, we have beefed up security. Apart from police officers, we have also engaged the service of G4S, who will be manning the place 24/7. We engaged the private security company after discovering that police officers were involved in the malpractice. The two security organs will be watching each other. Another advantage is that if theft occurs, the private security company will take responsibility in the recovery of the stolen items even if it means paying,” Njoloma said.
According to Njoloma, theft started with cement, and later spread to other items like the iron sheets and welding machines that led to the arrest of the 10 police officers.
Njoloma said GBI Secretariat also engaged other officials of the matter.
“We engaged the Principal Secretary at the OPC responsible for security matters (Often Thyolani) to curb the malpractice. We also talked to Deputy Inspector General, [Responsible for administration, Duncan Mwapasa] over the issue,” Njoloma said.
Apollo International Limited, Project Execution Manager, Mohammad Hussain, said there has been an improvement.
“At the beginning we trusted the Malawi Police Service, but there was theft and some officers were even arrested. But since beefing up security with G4S there we have observed in the last month, thing have improved,” Hussain said.
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