Banda says the procurement can be used to distribute wealth to the marginalized Malawians and not only among few rich people.

He said this during a workshop between his institution and Blantyre Water Board (BWB) directors at Bvumbwe in Thyolo yesterday where he implored public institutions to stick to procurement laws.

“We cannot expect that a person with K5 million worth company would do a railway line project, but at least they can be able to supply rims of paper or tomato to a public institution.

“Empowerment of our people is a must. We procure using their taxes. It cannot be that public procurement should be a reserve of few individuals or few companies. It mustn’t happen,” said Banda.

BWB Board Chairperson, George Mnesa, says it is important that they understand procurement requirements as they need a lot of materials to provide city dwellers with safe water.

“We do spend a lot of money in materials that we buy. However, there have been issues in that sometimes there are mis-procurement, sometimes our proposals are rejected by PPDA and sometimes there are delays. All these affect our clients.

“If we cannot procure the materials to supply the water, it affects our customers,” he said.

About 70 percent of national budget goes to public procurement in the country.