Ministry of Youth and Sports is under pressure to settle a debt of over K6 billion to suppliers of services and goods during the Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games held in Lilongwe in 2022.
This comes after some companies have sued the ministry for delaying to settle the debt.
According to documents that Times Sport has seen, the ministry, in a letter dated July 31 2024, requested one of the companies (name withheld) to pend legal action.
“The ministry is aware that the contract period for the payment of the contract price has elapsed. However, non-payment of the contract sum, within the contract period, is beyond our control as the ministry has not received funding for settlement of contractual obligations,” reads the letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
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Spokesperson for the ministry Macmillan Mwale asked for more time before he could comment on the matter.
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The development has angered the suppliers, who are also demanding that the ministry should pay the arrears with interest.
In an interview Wednesday, Kondwani Wilson Mjumira of Jalawe General Dealers said the delay had negatively impacted his business.
“We got some of the goods from South Africa on credit based on mutual trust. Now the suppliers think we got paid and we do not want to remit what is due to them. This is driving us out of business. It is painful,” Mjumira said.
Another supplier, Chisomo Mbite of GIF Entertainment, said he had exhausted all channels to get the money.
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“There is no communication from government on the matter. To make matters worse, we borrowed resources from other companies. Some people have lost their properties,” Mbite said.
Last year, a report by the National Audit Office (Nao) exposed that claims amounting to about K1.1 billion which Region 5 Youth Games Lilongwe 2022 Limited submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs lacked sufficient documents.
Then, Nao only approved K6.8 billion out of the K8 billion.
Nao instituted an investigation to verify the arrears which Region 5 Games Lilongwe 2022 Limited owed various suppliers for services and good provided for hosting the Games two years ago.
Then, the report indicated that the verification exercise, among other procedures, involved inspection of contract agreements, local purchase orders, internal purchase requisitions, certificates, invoices delivery notes, quotations and payment vouchers.
Nao also conducted an audit on the Griffin Saenda Sports Complex and Aquatic Sports Complex. Works on the two facilities is set to resume, two years after they hosted the Region 5 Youth Games.
