Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has suspended director of finance Brian Ndisale over alleged flouting of procedures in the procurement of K8 billion worth of motor vehicle tyres from Mapeto Tyres last September.
Escom chief public relations and communications officer Pilirani Phiri in an interview confirmed the suspension, but could not provide finer details.
“All I can confirm is that the CEO moved swiftly to effect the suspension to pave the way for investigations,” he said.
The Nation sources confided that the procurement in question is under investigation for possible breaches of procedure and poor planning.
“The quantity of tyres purchased exceeds operational needs with some expected to expire before being used,” said a source within Escom.
confirm. | Nation
The source further said that new Escom CEO William Kaipa suspended Ndisale to allow an independent investigation to proceed without any interference.
Details of the contract The Nation has seen show that the deal to supply the tyres was awarded to Mapeto Tyres as a single supplier in September 2025 contrary to policy at the time, which required that multiple suppliers should benefit.
The procurement emanates from an April 17 2025 advert, placed in the local press, which invited companies to supply the tyres.
Reads the advert: “The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi [Escom], a State-owned company has budgeted funds to be used for supply and delivery of motor vehicle tyres on framework agreement.
“Bidding will be conducted in accordance with National Competitive Bidding [NC] procedures specified in the Malawi Public Procurement Act, 2025.”
In procurement, framework agreement refers to a long-term, legally binding arrangement between one or more buyers and suppliers, which defines the terms over a set period to allow for efficiency and speed without requiring a new, full tender process for each transaction.
Our source said Ndisale was suspended to pave the way for investigations into how the contract ended up with Mapeto Tyres, a single supplier who received a Local Purchasing Order (LPO) soon after the procurement advert.
Ndisale did not respond to The Nation calls, seven in all, between Thursday and Saturday. Questions sent to him via WhatsApp and short message service (SMS) platforms were also not responded to.
On the other hand, Mapeto Tyres operations manager Kabir Ishmail, in a written response to The Nation questionnaire, said the company participated in an open tender for a framework agreement to supply tyres to Escom.
The tender, which The Nation confirmed, was advertised as ESC002/NCB/G/FY2025-26 on April 17 2025 with a closing date of May 15 2025.
Said Ishmail: “Following the evaluation process, we received an offer letter on 4th August 2025 and subsequently signed the contract in end August/early September 2025.
“We participated in a formal, open and competitive tender process in line with the procurement procedures. The process was transparent and we were awarded the contract after meeting all the required criteria and evaluations set out in the tender.”
On the issue of payment, he said Mapeto Tyres was yet to be paid and has no information on developments that have led to Ndisale’s suspension.
“We would like to emphasise that Mapeto Tyres adhered to all required procedures throughout the procurement and supply process. We remain committed to professionalism, compliance and transparency in all our business dealings,” said Ishmail.
On April 26 2026, our sister newspaper Nation on Sunday reported that Kaipa had issued several directives to steady the ship, including placing a moratorium on functional reviews he found to be misaligned and misplaced key personnel leading to low morale within Escom.
Major directives in internal memos further include Kaipa directing that all currently hired vehicles should be returned to suppliers by last Friday 30th April.
In January, Escom board chairperson Alfred Nhlema decried operational inefficiencies, citing shortages of mobility and technical resources as undermining service reliability and eroding public confidence in the parastatal.
Escom is no stranger to procurement-related queries as in 2022, the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change called for prosecution of people behind the K14 billion misprocurement. The power utility was also earlier embroiled in a K26 million procurement of envelopes whose market value was K3 million at the time. The envelopes were said to be enough to last 22 years.
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