Malawi Parliament to summon ACB Czar to disclose Cashgate names

Malawi Parliament through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will summon director of graft-busting body  to disclose names of individuals and businesses identified in the recent forensic audit on the country’s grand corruption  that established that about K236 billion in public funds could not be reconciliated between 2009 and December 31 2014.

PAC chairperson Alekeni Menyani confirmed that the committee which comprises among others,  vice chairman Kamlepo Kalua of Rumphi East constituency, made the resolution after its two-week meeting in Lilongwe.

Menyani said his committee was still determined to get and release the names of those named in the report.

The audit was conducted by British firm RSM Risk Insurance LLP but Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa  did not release the names owing to legal opinion received from Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale.

But Menyani said the contents of the report were forwarded to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), saying the conduct of the graft-busting body since they received the detals has “created unnecessary pulic anxiety and pressure.”

He said PAC has written ACB to seek an audience with its director Lucas Kondowe .

Menyani said ACB  wants to disclose the progess of its investigations and release names of those business that have been cleared.

The Auditor-General handed over the 13 case files to the Anti-Corruption Bureau which, said it needs time to “investigate.”

And German Embassy in Lilongwe said last were that it is concerned about the breadth and depth of corruption revealed by Cashgate report .

Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy, Thomas Staiger, told Nyasa Times that Germany wanted thorough probe in the fraud.

“Since we are not involved in the investigation, we are not in a position to comment on ongoing procedures. However, we remain concerned by the breadth and depth of corruption revealed by the current audit work,” said Staiger.

Staiger asked government to step up efforts to bring to justice those involved in the plunder of public resources.

“We welcome President [Peter] Mutharika’s commitment to zero-tolerance on corruption, and we trust the Malawian authorities will step up their efforts to bring those responsible for defrauding the Malawian people to justice,” he said.

He said in a statement made available to Nyasa Times  responding toa questionairer on whether the embassy was the author of a press release circulating on social media which is giving 13 names of companies alleging that they are implicated in the Cashgate report.

“The quoted press release has not been issued by the German Embassy,” he said.

It transpired the so called ‘press release’ was authored by Wise One from the East under Garvey Karvei Publications.

According to the report, the audit found that K83.5 billion of the K236 billion which could not be accounted for was paid to 44 companies from the sample of 50 that the auditors selected to analyse.

The audit also found that billions were lost in overpayment of goods and services, duplicate payments and overpayment on shipping to wrong locations.

Initially, the amount suspected to have not been accounted for was pegged at K577 billion, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) data analysis released in May 2015.

However, the forensic audit established, through its testing of the system and controls, that the unreconciled funds could be in the region of K236 billion.

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