What should have been contributions to the Public Private Partnerships bill tabled in Parliament ended up being a contest of which administration practised regionalism and tribalism the most between Malawi Congress Party and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The opposing benches pointed fingers at each other with allegations of nepotism, regionalism and tribalism in the way senior government positions are appointed and contracts awarded in the public and private sector.

MCP MP Vitus Dzoolel Mwale of Lilongwe Msozi South claimed that the PPPs bill was just a way of legalising nepotism and tribalism so that contracts are awarded to companies close to DPP leaders.

He threatened to disclose names of companies who would be direct beneficiaries of PPPs contracts once the legislation is passed but in the end he did not.

“I know big companies in this country who will benefit from this and they are owned by DPP cronies. This bill is just to legalise the nepotism and regionalism in this country,” Mwale alleged adding the bill was a campaign strategy so that those who get contracts should in turn fund the DPP campaign in 2014.

His counterpart Lilongwe Msinja South MP Lingson Belekanyama also alleged that the private sector was fully monopolized due to nepotistic and tribalistic tendencies of the ruling party which was a very dangerous direction to take.

“Just look at the number of ministers in the current cabinet who come from central region, very few. There is only one chairperson of a committee from the central region and yet the region contributed 32 MPs to the DPP,” Belekanyama said.

The allegations did not go down well with the government bench with the government chief whip Simon Vuwa Kaunda making counter accusations that the MCP government practised tribalism even more.

“It was the MCP government which chased teachers from the northern region, it was in the MCP when one minister was chairing nine companies. For you to be considered for a senior government position, you had to come from Dedza,” Kaunda shouted.

Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati added that MCP could not teach DPP about regionalism because it was a party whose MPs all came from central region.