Manoj Shanker in pains as Techno Brain loses Malawi contract

Techno Brain, a Kenyan IT firm led by CEO Manoj Shanker, has lost a controversial $60-million e-passport contract that it earlier signed with the Malawian government.

The development follows a public outcry and a series of demonstrations against the contract, which forced the Malawian government to terminate it.

In a bid to upgrade its passport issuance system and introduce an e-passport, the Malawian government entered into a Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the company in 2018 in a deal worth Sh 6.7 billion ($60 million).

According to the deal, Techno Brain was required to fund the initial production costs of the new passports and cover expenses incurred in the process, including training, meetings and travel.

Many Malawians were dissatisfied with the contract and called for its revocation, citing corruption.

In September, the Malawian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders wrote to Homeland Security Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda, requesting that the contract be terminated as it favored Techno Brain Global at the expense of the interest of the Malawian population.

The calls increased in recent weeks after findings by the World Bank suggested that the firm and its UAE parent company, Techno Brain Global FZ-LLC, for committing fraud in the Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project in Liberia.

Consequently, the WB blacklisted the firm for 28 months and its parent company for 10 months. As a result, the companies were restricted from participating in WB-funded or -related projects.

The news triggered a second wave of calls for the Malawian authorities to cancel its contract with the firm.

Confirming the government’s decision to annul the deal, Malawian Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda stated that the termination of the contract is in line with Sector 46 (c) of Malawi’s Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act 2017.

He told Business Daily: “We must always do the right thing, no matter what it takes. As a country, we have a duty to ensure that we safeguard public funds from plunder. As a government, everything we do must be done with the people at the centre of it because we serve the people.”

Founded in 1997, Techno Brain is an IT company with a presence in East Africa, the United States, India, the UK and the Middle East. It offers consulting services, application and enterprise management solutions, business intelligence services, data warehousing and cloud computing.