The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority has faulted the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) for mishandling the procurement of ICT equipment for Automated Transfer System (ATS) and Flexcube Systems last year.

On November 13 last year, RBM published a notice of intention to offer the deal to Mitra on the basis of being the lowest evaluated bidder, in opposition to Sparc Systems. The latter insisted to be the lowest bidder and demanded a clear explanation on how the contract was passed to Mitra.

Following the irregularities in the contract procedure, the PPDA has ordered RBM to re-advertise both the ATS and Flexcube tenders. Part of a letter by the PPDA reads “The consideration beyond the firm was inappropriate because the understanding of the committee is that the meaning of a bidder under Section 2 of the PPDA Act 2017 is the firm and not the individual owners or stakeholders. Mitra Systems was therefore not supposed to be awarded the contract on this basis,”.