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| Chiphiko listening to Petition on halting MSB sale |
Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) sale
will not be stopped confirms Finance Minister Hon Goodall Gondwe, amid adoption
of the Budget and Finance Parliamentary Committee’s report in the National Assembly which calls halting
the sale of the Bank.
The Report was adopted on Wednesday
evening by the house which asks recapitalization of the bank and sale it later
if necessary.
Chairperson for the Committee
Hon. Rhino Chiphiko when presenting the report noted that the sale of the bank
is motivated by interest of very few business individuals connected to the
ruling party including one major FDH shareholder Mr. Thom Mpinganjira.
He said the determination of the
real value of the bank was a guess work as such the bank is going away on a
giveaway price. Ina addition he said having one bidder which is FDH bank for
such a big asset “Has heavily compromised on transparency and fairness of the
process”
The committee said it was
informed that the FDH bank had offered K4.9 billion for purchase of 75% shares
in MSB.
After presenting the report which
has been noted by the whole house on Wednesday, Chiphiko in an interview likened
selling of the bank to FDH, to “Goat eating a Cow” as the bank is too small to
buy the biggest bank in Malawi with number of branches across the country.
Chiphiko noted that since the
house has adopted the report any process of selling the bank would be
challenged in court by the house.
“The process of selling
the bank should be floated on the Malawi stock exchange” said “I’ve been told
that the stakeholders who would like to buy the bank are at the Capital Hotel
to sign the papers, they can go on and sign the papers. But we’ve got the case
here. Parliament will go to court because the report has been adopted by the
whole house. And the house is the representative of all Malawians so the sale
will be challenged if it continues” said Chiphiko
He said the committee also fear
that the sale of the bank will lead to lay off of about 630 employees just like
how previous privatized companies had done.
Chiphiko said
the committee emphasized the need to recapitalize the bank with K4.5 billion
that is required to make it stand on its feet so that it can meet Basel II
requirements and possibly sale it after 3 to 4 years when it is in good shape
and not at its weakest as it is now.
Meanwhile Minister of Finance,
Economic Planning and Development Hon. Goodall Gondwe while describing reports
that the bank has been secretly sold as of Wednesday ‘hearsay’, he said the
sale of MSB is unstoppable what remains is when and how.
He said though government will go
for analysis of what has been said both by experts and parliament but said
selling the bank is the best recapitalization as alluded to the report and
other calls being made since government will be free of any obligations of
controlling the bank.
“The House did not stop the
government from selling the bank, they noted the report and there was no vote
passed.” Said Gondwe
“We are selling the bank because
we are being forced by the Basel II requirement where we are considering the recapitalization
of the bank. I expect that it will no longer be the responsibility of the
government to constitute and meet the requirement of Basil II it will be the
new management responsibility” he said
“All experts recommended that we
should sell the bank and the only difference was when and how that should it be
done and that was left for us to decide.” Added Gondwe
“In our case we have to decide
when and how to sell the bank. If we don’t sell the bank the depositors will lose
all their money is that what we want? Because the bank will find it difficult to
find the money to pay the depositors when they want their money out if we don’t
sale it. But we have an obligation to ensure that depositors do not lose their
money”
Asked if he is afraid of the
warning that the house will challenge the decision in court, Hon Gondwe said “No!,
no, no, the courts are there for all of us to appear there, we will go to court
and follow them, that is not a problem”
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