Last witness in a K186 million fraud and money laundering case involving former Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) Chief Executive Officer Collins Magalasi alongside three others on Thursday told the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court that Vink Enterprise started supplying goods to Mera despite not being registered with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA).
According to the State witness; police detective Ephraim Phiri, the company which is jointly owned by Magalasi and his business associate Dorothy Nkhoma, did not follow procurement procedures when supplying materials to Mera.
He said: “Our investigations with officials from PPDA found that the company wasn’t registered of which we concluded that this was unusual for such company to be awarded such a contract and let alone supply the goods.
Phiri added that police investigation found that Nkhoma used a fake Turkish passport to open the company’s account at CDH Bank.
“The passport had two different names which is very unusual as at the top there was a name of Viecca Paul whilst at the bottom it had the name of Paksul Murati.
“And in our investigations we found that Magalasi only used his middle names – Viecca Paul to open the account,” said Phiri.
But in cross examination, Magalasi’s lawyer Andy Kaonga questioned Phiri’s calculation on how he arrived at the revised K186.5 million.
Whilst referring to Phiri’s submissions, Kaonga said when added, the figure on the payment vouchers is K151.4 million disputing the revised K186.5 million.
Meanwhile, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni said plea taking for the amended charge sheet will be on Friday afternoon.
He said: “The court has directed that tomorrow afternoon the plea taking for the new filed charges will be done in court then afterwards we adjourn the matter for 19th May 2022 for continued hearing.”
The court adjourned the matter to Friday afternoon where the four accused persons are expected to take plea on an amended charge sheet.
According to the State, Magalasi, Bright Mbewe, Patrick Maulidi and Nkhoma between August 2019 and July 2020, by deceit, namely, inducing the Internal Procurement and Disposal Committee for Mera to approve procurement of various items whose total payment value was K186 539, 425 from Vink Enterprises.
