A Tanzanian company has been swindled $20 000 (about K14.7million) after some unscrupulous people posing as State House and Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) officials deceitfully awarded it a fuel importation contract.
According to documents trending on social media which Weekend Nation has seen, the company was offered a one-year contract to supply 100 000 metric tonnes each of petrol and diesel every month.
However, we could not independently confirm full particulars of the Dar es Salaam-based company which the letter purported to coming from OPC/State House in Malawi says is Dar es Salaam Jedadar International Limited.
According to the documents, the fraudsters demanded the K14.7 million as part payment of their agreed contract fee, which was to be paid by instalments within four months. The company duly deposited the $20 000 at FMB Bank Capital City Branch account number 10000122890 on July 31 2018.
The company, in turn, was given a government General Receipt (GR) J no 61888564 for contract fee no. 1000064/18 with station being OPC.
The letter said the contract is with effect from July 1 2018 and advised the company to come in “person” to sign the agreement form of the contract within October 2018.
“Please take note that it is the discretion of the Malawi Government to renew or not renew the contract… We would also like to bring to your attention that we are still waiting for the bond to be fulfilled,” reads part of the letter purported to have been signed by presidential press secretary and spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani.
But in an interview on Friday from New York, USA where he is part of the Malawi delegation to the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (Unga), Kalilani disowned the said letter and contract.
The presidential spokesperson said he got an inquiry from the Tanzania High Commission to Malawi through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on Thursday who wanted to know if the documents were authentic after the company got suspicious with the person they were dealing with.
Kalilani said: “I told them they did not come from me. If indeed the transaction ever happened let the Tanzania mission or the company involved report it to police who will definitely get to the bottom of it.”
On his part, State-owned National Oil Company of Malawi communications officer Telephorous Chigwenembe, imports fuel into the country, said he was not aware of the contract. n
