European Investment Bank (EIB) has questioned the hiring of Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Godfrey Itaye accused of being involved in corruption malpractice.
The development comes barely weeks after the law enforcers arrested Itaye, former Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Director General.
This has been confirmed in a letter dated October 7, 2020 addressed to Finance Minister Felix Mlusu.
EIB also urged government to ensure that another senior officer at LWB, Sinosi Maliano who is facing charges by the EIB’s Fraud and Investigations Division, should not be involved in the Lilongwe Drought Resilience Programme financed by the bank.
“On 9th April 2020, we received written assurances from the Ministry of Finance that the new Chief Executive Officer for Lilongwe Water Board would be competitively recruited and that the EIB and the World Bank would be updated once the recruitment process is completed.
“Unfortunately, we did not receive such an update and consequently it is difficult to determine if a competitive recruitment process was undertaken,” reads the letter in part.
Fiscal Police early last month arrested Itaye before releasing him on police bail for alleged abuse of office and fraud when he was CEO of Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).
Itaye is being accused of playing a part in the procurement of K135 million Macra calendars as well as buying cloth for former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
