At a time when ADMARC is telling Parliament that it needs K144 billion to operate, its chief executive is spending about K135,000 a day on accommodation.
Over ten months, that works out at roughly K40 million.
That is enough money to buy a rather large pile of maize although, presumably, not enough to persuade the ADMARC chief executive to sleep in his office.
Ben Botolo, the former Treasury secretary appointed to head ADMARC in December, says the institutional house at Mudi residential estate in Blantyre is not fit for occupation and is being renovated.
When contacted, Botolo shared videos of the property with the Nation showing an old, unpainted house with peeling walls.
He said his predecessor, Daniel Makata, left the house in tatters in June.
Makata disputes this, saying he vacated the house in February, although his contract ended in June.
Whatever the disagreement over who left what behind, the result is the same: the ADMARC chief executive has been living in lodges.
Botolo says he has deliberately avoided hotels because lodges are cheaper, costing him about K135,000 a day.
“I am not staying in the hotel. I have been staying in Lilongwe working at Malangalanga and I come here to finalise payments such as salaries, etc. While I am here I stay in lodges,” he said.
There is, however, another question that comes with this explanation.
If the work requires the CEO to move between Blantyre and Lilongwe to approve salaries and attend to administrative matters, why does the work necessarily require the CEO to move at all?
President Peter Mutharika has been encouraging Malawians and public institutions to embrace digital tools.
In the digital age, a salary approval does not necessarily need a car, a road trip and a lodge at the other end.
It can, in many cases, involve a computer, a secure connection and the rather less expensive act of clicking a button.
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