The Malawi Police Service says it is making progress on its investigations regarding the suspicious missing of 13 trucks of maize.
Police Inspector General (IG) Merlyne Yolamu has told a Joint Parliamentary Committee on various issues of misprocurement and mismanagement of public resources that the law enforcement agency has made some arrests relating to the probe.
She said: “Investigators have made progress in this respect, we have arrested some of the suspects, but as we have already said investigations are still going on because we want to widen our scope into of investigations into other areas.
“We are going back to the drawing board and extend some areas that we had not thought of the first place.”
The revelation comes amid what Smollett Kachere, a man behind Kachere Agriculture Trading has told journalists in Lilongwe that there are big thieves stealing maize at Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc).
Kachere challenged authorities to go and ascertain his allegations for themselves by saying the State-produce marketer was not in possession of the said 38,000 metric tons of maize arguing that more tons were stolen.
Yolamu added that all individuals who have information regarding the procurement should furnish Police with such details.
“Indeed, if he [Kachere] has any information to give to the police, he should come to the police and give that information, because as he has put, giving information to the press, to us it’s hearsay because we haven’t gotten that information from him directly.
“Because when you are an investigator into the case, you really need to have an open mind where you can every information to enrich the investigation itself,” appealed the police IG.
Kachere told media, that the big people have stolen so much to extent that he could not find enough Maize when his drivers went to uplift it at ADMARC.
He also disclosed that he is ready to pay back K112 million through subtractions from his contract if the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) wants him to continue with maize transportation.
