Exposing BWB Top Brass Sent Home For Theft

The newly appointed Board for the Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has cracked a whip on almost the entire top management at the water utility parastatal sending them home to pave way for possible crimes.

Those sent on forced leave include Director of Finance Paul Chiumia, Director of Technical Services Mavuto Chiipanthenga, Director of Distribution and Commerce Verson Kafodya and Director of Human Resource and Administration Mercy Phiri.

Also sent home on this forced holiday is the Procurement Manager Andrew Puleni.

The Board led by it’s Chairperson Counsel Stanley Chirwa decided to send the 5 on leave after noting some issues that require proper investigations.

He said the 5 are expected to be home for at least 2 months the period under which the board feels they may be able to conclude their investigations.

Malawians may be reminded that BWB has recently been accused of financing political activities of the now removed Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

Under the leadership of Engineer Robert Hanjahanja as its Chief Executive Officer, BWB degenerated into a political arm of the MCP with Secretary General Richard Chimwendo Banda controlling the affairs there.

Amongst the scandals registered at BWB include facilitation of expired water chemicals, faulty meters and many other issues.

Under the same Hanjahanja and his top management, almost six months into the 2025 General Elections, the Blantyre Water Board also paid millions of taxpayers money to Gospel Kazako towards the production of the now infamous Chakwera documentary in collaboration with the the Water PS Elias Chimulambe.

The infamous 30-minute documentary done by Gospel Kazako and his business partner Joab Frank Chakhaza costed Malawians nearly Mk 500,000,000.

All the Water Boards in the country including BWB paid their money into Gospel Kazako company registered as CG Communications.

The total money that Gospel Kazako and his partner Joan Frank Chakhaza fraudulently received from the water boards under the facilitation of the then Ministry of Water and Sanitation was Mk 485, 658, 043.

The Anti Corruption Bureau is reported to be probing into this matter.

Paul Chiumia was appointed Director of Finance at BWB in 2019 and has been in the post for 6 years, Mavuto Chiipanthenga has been BWB Director of Technical Services from 2012 and has been in the post for 14 years, Verson Kafodya has been Director of Distribution and Commerce for BWB from 2016 and has been in the position for 10 years and Mercy Phiri has been Director of Human Resource and Administration from 2022 and has been in the post for 4 years.

Andrew Puleni has been Procurement Manager for BWB for over 20 years.

Following the revelations of such scandals at BWB, Chief Executive Officer Engineer Robert Hanjahanja was sent on secondment to be a lecturer at MUBAS.