Money multiplying saga haunts Malawi Finance Minister

All eyes are set on the Malawi’s newly appointed Minister of Finance, Ken Kandodo who is set to present the national budget in parliament under the cloud of a past where he was involved in “money multiplying” scandal.

 Nyasa Times has stumbled on information that the country’s purse-keeper was booted out of Blantyre Print and Packaging (BP&P) company after he was involved in a syndicate of self-styled money multipliers led by late James Mwitha in 1997.

Kandodo, then Director of Finance for BP&P, had his personal to holder vehicle, a Mercedes Benz confiscated by the late Mwitha after he had ran out of money to satisfy the demands of the deal.

 The incident forced management of BP&P to dismiss him from the company whose chairman then was the current president of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), John Tembo.

The company is owned by the family of the late Dr. Kamuzu Banda, first president of Malawi to whom Kandodo is a nephew.

 After the saga which became talk of the town, the Chancellor College bred economist became a persona non grata in the family business forcing him to leave the country for Mozambique to join a cousin.

In Mozambique, Kandodo secured a part-time job as UNICEF financial consultant.

The Finance Minister had fallen victim of a syndicate which led to some notable business executives in Blanytre duped by the “money multipliers”. Prominent on the list of the victims was former bank manager for the defunct, Finance Bank a Mr. Chinthiti who served a jail term at Chichiri Prison in Blantyre.

 Chinthiti was arrested after he had used MK14 million belonging to the bank in a money multiplication deal.

 A close pal to the Finance Minister said though Kandodo is educated, he has the tendency of dealing with questionable characters in his life.

His other weakness, close associates say, is his insatiable lust for quick money.

“It becomes debatable as to whether a man of Kandodo’s character is the suitable person to be trusted with the money from the Consolidated Fund,” remarked Andrew Kakhobwe a businessman in Lilongwe.

The position of the Minister of Finance requires a personality of high standing in society to win the confidence of the donors and the public at large.

Kandodo replaced Goodall Gondwe who many have accredited that “the work of his hands” helped the country achieve average economic growth of around 7 percent for the past three years.

 ”In 2008, the economy recorded a robust growth in real GDP of 9.7 percent, compared to 8.6 percent achieved in 2007,” pointed out President Mutharika in a State of the Nation Address in parliament on Tuesday.

But the new Finance Minister has said there should be no cause for worry on his role at the treasury.

“I have so many years of experience in the private sector … I am quite familiar with issues in the ministry of finance and I would like to tell investors, donors, the public and other stakeholders not to be worried,” he recently told Reuters.

 The new treasury Czar has also said he there will be no change in economic policies, sticking with President Bingu wa Mutharika’s position not to devalue the country’s currency contrary to calls by World Band and captains of local business industry.

 Experts say devaluating the Kwacha would help cushion the country against the effects of the global economic crunch and enable the country to achieve its developmental needs.

 But President Mutharika has declined that the currency be devalued.

 Gondwe is reported to have failed to persuade Mutharika for the country to carry the devaluation.

Tagged with: Bingu, budget, Goodall Gondwe, Kandodo

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