Zamara Group CEO Sundeep Raichura. FILE PHOTO | NMG The rights body claims Zamara has no foothold in Malawi, and therefore did not qualify to be awarded government business estimated at 0.4 per cent of the total public wage bill.
The Public Service Pension Trust Fund had, in a notice published in the Malawian press, indicated that it had finalised the evaluation process and intended to award the K556.8 million ($741,000) contract to Zamara Pension Administrators Ltd.
However, Zamara Group CEO Sundeep Raichura said his company had bought out a Malawian firm last year, and therefore had a local presence contrary to HRDC’s claims.
Zamara Group, a Kenyan financial consulting and pension management firm, is entangled in an ongoing push for investigations into alleged irregular procurement of a contract for administration of a pension scheme for retired Malawian civil servants.
The Malawian Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) is urging the Malawian Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate circumstances under which the Public Service Pension Trust Fund appointed Zamara as the administrator of the public service pension fund in the country.
The rights body claims Zamara is a Kenyan Company with no foothold in Malawi, and therefore did not qualify to be awarded government business of this nature, with the value of the Malawian civil service pension scheme estimated at 0.4 percent of the total public wage bill.
HRDC chairperson, Gift Trapence, in an interview told The EastAfrican that his organisation has forwarded its complaints to the Anti-Corruption Bureau and other law enforcement agencies to investigate what he terms as an irregular procurement.
“Following our whistle-blowing initiative we received an allegation and our organisation forwarded the allegation to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to address it,” said Mr Trapence.
According to the HRDC, the award of a serious contract affecting the livelihoods of senior citizens of Malawi to a foreign company is questionable.
The Public Service Pension Trust Fund had, in a notice published in the Malawian press, indicated that it had finalised the evaluation process and intended to award the K556.8 million ($741,000) contract to Zamara Pension Administrators Ltd.
HRDC, in the letter addressed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau director-general Reyneck Matemba, also claims that Malawian companies such as Old Mutual, National Bank and Nico Life also applied to be administrators of the scheme, but were overtaken by the “foreign” firm.However, Zamara Group CEO Sundeep Raichura said his company had bought out a Malawian firm last year, and therefore had a […]