Bingu’s K61bn wealth a wake up call to Malawians–British Envoy
The British High Commissioner to Malawi Michael Nevin has described the wealth amassed by former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika as a wake up call to Malawians.
Nevin made the remarks in an interview on Friday in Lilongwe on the sidelines of the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting organised by the Youth Consultative Forum (YCF).
Mutharika had several accounts both with local and foreign commercial banks where some money which is part of his K61 billion estate was kept.
“Looking at the surface of it all, it is quite shocking and a wakeup call to Malawians to start ooking critically at how the leaders amass such wealth while in power,” said Nevin, adding “this leads to many questions as to how, when did he earn such wealth and who assisted him.”
He called on government to strengthen the monetary institutions and the laws of the country to avoid such developments in future.
Late Mutharika, according to an affidavit by Yeremia Chihana of YMW Property Investment Limited and Registered Property, kept some of the money in Europe and America.
At the time of his ascendancy to the presidency in 2004, Mutharika declared that he had K150 million worth of assets.
“Although I have not yet completed my exercise, as the Estate is huge and somewhat complex and in various countries, my preliminary examination has approximately valued the entire Estate as a gross value of K 61,350, 437, 237. 62,” sad Chihana in the affidavit.
Mutharika, who was serving his second and final five-year term, died while in office in April last year.
