Forum says DPP has ‘case to answer’ on cashgate origins
Forum for National Development (FND) on Thursday called upon Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its leader Professor Peter Mutharika to be the first ones to provide answers on massive plunder and looting of government resources at Capital Hill.
Recently, Mutharika was quoted in the media that Malawians urgently need answers to massive looting of government resources in what have been known as capital hill cash gate scandal
FND National Coordinator Fyson Chodzi told reporters in Lilongwe that evidence indicates that the DPP and the former president late Bingu wa Mutharika were the architects of the looting and plundering of the tax payers money.
“There are issues that attest to our assertion that the DPP are the architects of massive looting, theft and plunder of public resources and corruption,” he said.
Chodzi expressed that Goodall Gondwe who was then Finance Minister has always acknowledged the degree of corruption during the Mutharika period.
He then hinted that his organization has empirical evidence that the DPP is responsible for massive looting of public resources.
“We are concerned with the misinformation by the opposition parties especially the United Democratic Front (UDF) and DPP who want to convince the country that corruption, looting, plundering and theft of public resources have started by the People’s Party (PP) government.
Chodzi said their assertions are based on an interim report on IFMIS sanctioned by the Auditor General after being consulted by the then budget Director Dr. Kabambe on 1st November 2011 who had suspected fraud in the central payment system and called for immediate investigative audit, points out to the origins of the massive plunder of public resources.
He said the Audit was carried out on the Central Payment System (CPS) and the banking transactions focusing on the financial years of 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and part 0f 2011/2012.
Chodzi, however, said DPP paid a deaf ear to calls from government officials to look into the issues of abuse of public resources that was being experienced then until President Joyce Banda’s administration that exposed the malpractice.
“The DPP and its leadership they should not pretend as if they are victims of the situation when just two years ago they were sharing business opportunities among family and friends while the rest of Malawians were living in abyss of despair. Without owning to their share of responsibility as architects of cashgate and apologizing to Malawians, the DPP shows that they have no remorse for the suffering it caused on the people of Malawi. It is therefore that the DPP and should not be trusted to rule Malawi again especially the current leadership as it has shown utmost greed and corruption,” said Chodzi.
FND Executive Member Godfrey Kam’munda said the FND investigation on the report uncovered that when the report was presented to the then President Bingu wa Mutharika, he ordered a stop to the audit process, fearing the repercussion of the massive looting on the government which in itself was an executive cover-up.
He said the infamous MK 410,000,000.00 found in a junior staff account of Capital Hill in 2010 was part of this looting that was not followed to the latter.
“The revelations indicate that had the Late President Mutharika and the DPP acted at that time, the looting of public resources would not have gone to such scale as we witnessed until 2013. The inactivity and interference of the DPP government to the audit process was considered as a license to the looters knowing that the government would not touch them,” said Kam’munda
He said that FND is greatly concerned with the misinformation by the opposition parties especially the United Democratic Front (UDF) and DPP who want to convince the country that corruption, looting, plundering and theft of public resources has started in 2013 by the PP government yet, both the UDF and DPP government were locked with the same.
“At present there is a court case involving the former President Bakili Muluzi involving the looting of K1.7 billion kwacha. Has this been done in 2013 with the PP government? The UDF was also at the Centre of the infamous K187 million kwacha education scam which is cashgate. In 2005, the then Director of Public Prosecution indicated that 30% of the national resources was being lost due to corruption, fraud, plunder and theft. Was this during the PP government?”
“We at FND are saddened by the acts of the present DDP leadership which would like to act as holier than thou in the case of plundering of public resource when they are the architects of the cash gate. This evidence vindicates what president Dr. Joyce Banda said that looting and theft of public resources was inherent and deep rooted within the DPP and she just inherited the rotten system,” said Kam’munda
He said in contrast to President Mutharika and DPP reaction to cashgate, which was characterized by cover up and indifference, Presidentanda decided to expose the looting and deal with the root cause of the problem.
DPP spokesman Nicholous Dausi said FND is a “barking dog” for ruling PP and not a watchdog for society, hence their comments have political inspirations.
“For answers on cashgate, let them release the forensic audit report and we will start answering from through parliament. Let FND be there and who will be dancing the startling revelations,” he said.—(Additional reporting by Arnold Mnelemba and Wanga Gwede – Nyasa Times)
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