Mutharika plans to keep K92 billion cashgate under wraps

Five month before the official report on the missing of K92 billion during the reign of Bingu wa Mutharika administration is out, President Peter Mutharika is already dismissing the loot as untrue.

In a recent interview with the state controlled MBC, Mutharika firmly dismissed the reports that the K92 billion went missing under the nose of his elder brother between 2009 and 2012.

“There is nothing like K92 billion, that is not true,” said the President.

The Auditor General told Malawi Parliament that it is investigating a staggering K557 billion that includes the K92 billion which went missing between 2009 and 2014.

Opposition MPs nearly rejected the national budget of 2015 and 2016 demanding a forensic audit report on the missing money.

Former president Bingu wa Mutharika is accused of amassing wealth in billions of kwacha during his term of office that ended tragically in 2012 when he died in office.

At the start of his office in 2009, he declared he had K150 million in wealth.

In May this year, a financial analysis report by audit and business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) established that about K577 billion in public funds could not be reconciled between 2009 and December 31, 2014.

In 2013, the shooting of former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo led to revelations of the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill christened as ‘Cashgate’

Former president Joyce Banda ordered an audit which British forensic auditor, Baker Tilly, undertook between April and September 2013 and established that about K24 billion was siphoned from public coffers through dubious payments, inflated invoices and goods or services never rendered.