Malawi Police arrest five more suspects: Cash gate scandal
As investigations into the massive plundering of government funds continue, police have arrested five more suspects in Blantyre and Lilongwe respectively.
Police say the five were apprehended on separate occasions over the weekend for being suspected of receiving government money for services they did not undertake.
Deputy National Police Spokesperson, Kelvin Maigwa, said those arrested in Lilongwe are Lora Sabvala, 39, and 31-year-old Caroline Savala. He could not indicate whether or not the two are direct relations.
“The two suspects arrested in Lilongwe are Lora Savala and Caroline Savala who are both building contractors. Lora is alleged to have obtained about K160 million while Caroline obtained about K49 million from Malawi Government. These people got the payments without providing any service or selling anything to government,” he explained.
However, Maigwa said he did not have readily available details of the three other suspects arrested in the commercial capital, Blantyre.
The deputy police spokesperson said the five fraudulently got money from Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture between the months of July and August 2013.
The arrest comes exactly a week after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested the ministry’s Principal Secretary, Tressa Namathanga-Senzani, on allegations that she instructed her office to make payments in favour of her company which also did not offer any service to government.
According to reports about K5 billion is reported to have been mismanaged at the Tourism Ministry.
Namathanga-Senzani, the most senior government official to be arrested to date since the scam came to light over a month ago, was charged with corruptly performing official duties contrary to Section 25 A (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act, intent to defraud contrary to Section 364 as read with Section 21 of the Penal Code and negligence contrary to Section 284 of the Penal Code.
