{"id":26396,"date":"2016-06-17T12:58:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T10:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=26396"},"modified":"2016-06-17T13:00:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T11:00:52","slug":"trevor-hiwa-demands-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2016\/06\/17\/trevor-hiwa-demands-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"Trevor Hiwa demands apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer Trevor Hiwa has demanded an apology and retraction of a story published by Malawi News <\/em>edition of June 4 to 10 2016 which had the headline \u201cRA BOSS AWARDS OWN FIRM K217M CONTRACT\u201d.<\/p>\n

Through Likongwe & Company, Hiwa describes the story and the newspaper comment with the headline \u201cThis endless abuse of resources is sickening\u201d and the broadcast of the same on Times Television and Times Radio as defamatory hence seeking damages for libel and slander in the absence of the apology and retraction.<\/p>\n

Hiwa argues that the story and comment insinuate that there is corruption, abuse of resources and conflict of interest at the RA and that the authority does not practise principles of good corporate governance and further that public and donor money is not safe in the hands of the RA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe article and comment were aimed at and had the effect of raising and agitating public and donor anger against the Roads Authority and Eng. Hiwa. These insinuations have greatly damaged the public image of our clients and damaged and reduced the Roads Authority\u2019s chances of soliciting and receiving money from the Malawi Government and from donor agencies,\u201d reads the demand letter dated June 9 2016 and addressed to the Managing Director of Blantyre Newspapers Limited.<\/p>\n

Hiwa argues that there was no corruption in the awarding of the contract to Infracon Limited since all legal procedures were followed and approvals obtained. He also says it is not against the law for the Roads Authority to award a contract to Infracon Ltd.<\/p>\n

He further argues that there is no legal prohibition against awarding a contract to a company partly owned by an employee of the Roads Authority if the potential conflict of interest is declared and all procedures are followed.<\/p>\n

But Times Group Editor-in- Chief, George Kasakula, on Thursday trashed Hiwa\u2019s demand and said the paper stands by its story. Kasakula said it is Hiwa who should apologise to the nation for abusing his position to enrich himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not apologising to him. There is nothing to apologise for. It is him who should apologise to the nation for abusing tax-payers money for giving contract to his own company,\u201d said Kasakula.<\/p>\n

Malawi News <\/em>revealed that Hiwa awarded a World Bank funded project worth K217 million to Infracon Limited, a company which he owns. Deputy Director of Public Procurement Edward Jeke said it was not proper for RA to award a contract to Infracon Limited if it belonged to an employee of the Authority.<\/p>\n

The Anti Corruption Bureau also said it was probing the matter.<\/p>\n

The Roads Authority board met on Monday this week and summoned Hiwa to explain himself after the newspaper expose. The board chairperson Jackson Gomani said the board would institute a team of investigators to probe Hiwa further before making a decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer Trevor Hiwa has demanded an apology and retraction of a story published by Malawi News edition of June 4 to 10 2016 which had the headline \u201cRA BOSS AWARDS OWN FIRM K217M CONTRACT\u201d. Through Likongwe & Company, Hiwa describes the story and the newspaper comment with the headline \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26402,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26396\/revisions\/26402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}