Former Roads Authority boss’ case starts today
Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court is expected to hear a case in which former Roads Authority (RA) chief executive officer Trevor Hiwa is answering corruption charges for allegedly awarding his company a multimillion kwacha contract.
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala said in a telephone interview yesterday that hearing is set to start today.
The ACB spokesperson, however, could not be drawn to comment further on the preparations in terms of number of State witnesses that have been lined up.
She said: “Yes it is true, the case will come before court on Wednesday, but I cannot go into details as to how many witnesses we have prepared. The rest of the information you will get it from the courts.”
One of the defence lawyers, Khumbo Soko, said in an interview yesterday that they are aware that the case is coming before court, but refused to take any more questions.
ACB arrested Hiwa on June 20 this year and was granted bail the following day after spending a night in police custody for corruptly awarding his company about K217 million ($303 823) World Bank contract after bypassing the internal procurement committee (IPC) and without declaring interest.
The contract was to design and supervise road construction projects in the Central and Southern regions.
The suspect was released on bail after producing K200 000 cash, two sureties bonded at K500 000 each (non-cash) and surrendered his travel documents. Other conditions include reporting to the bureau once every fortnight.
Hiwa was charged with failure to disclose interest in the procurement process contrary to Section 25D (1) of the Public Procurement Act and abuse of public office contrary to Section 25B (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act, according to ACB.
His arrest came barely a month following his dismissal from work as CEO after the disciplinary committee of RA found him guilty of, among others, abuse of office.
