ACB clears Mutharika on K145m: President did no personally benefit from Malawi Police food rations scandal
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has cleared President Peter Mutharika of any wrong doing in the K145 million donations suspected to have been proceeds of crime in much-publicised Malawi Police Service (MPS) food rations scam.
The K145 million payout to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was deposited by Pioneer Investment Limited in a bank account for which President Mutharika is a sole signatory.
The grafy-busting body’s investigation report showed that PI Limited made an abortive interest claim of K466 million from Police and deposited the controversial K145 million into the DPP bank account at Standard Bank.
But ACB director Reyneck Matemba said the ultimate beneficiary of the contentious K145 million donation was DPP and not Mutharika.
Matemba said bank documents and other evidence that they have gathered, some of which President Mutharika provided “ clearly show that the ultimate beneficiary of the K145 million was the Democratic Progressive Party and not the State President.”
PI Limited deposited the funds in the DPP account immediately after getting a K2.7 billion payment for police food rations contract.
Nyasa Times understands that ACB report has recommended that Innocent Bottoman, a director of finance in the Malawi Police Service and businessman Zameer Karim, owner of Pioneer Investments, be prosecuted for defrauding the Malawi government of K466,000,000.
The report also recommends that Bottoman and Karim be prosecuted for acquiring proceeds of crime totalling K1.4 billion.
The two are also to be charged for forging and uttering false documents, contrary to section 356 as read with section 360 of the penal code.
But according to the investigation report, Mutharika cannot be prosecuted due to his immunity as a sitting head of state.
In June, the Vice-President Saulos Chilima said there was need to amend the constitutional provision that shields a sitting President from criminal prosecution, saying it gives the presidency licence to commit corruption crimes.
But constitutional law experts argued that immunity was only temporary during tenure of office to protect the President from false charges and ensure dedication to discharge of duties.
Meanwhile, the civil society organisations have said they will still press for due process of the law on the matter.
Spokesman for Human Rights Defenders (HRD), Gift Trapence, said “Malawians will no longer trust the ACB to do its work independently.”
He said ACB is politically manipulated.
But Mutharika said he would never interfere with the graft-busting body.
“I do not interfere in the ACB. Never. Interfere for what?” said Muthatika in Talk to the President programme on MBC.
Mutharika said he was a victim of a political smear campaign ahead of nex year’s elections.
“I know of a few individuals who were sent by other parties to tarnish my name and the DPP,” he said.
“All over the world people receive donations and it is normal for people to receive donations,” stressed Mutharika.
DPP announced it will refund the funds.
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Che Matemba mudakali achichepere ndithu. Ngati moto wakukulilani utalikileni. Munali abwino ndipo mwaainu tinali ndichikhulupililo. Lero manyazi ndiye atigwila ndimachitidwe anu. Mukudya zamukachisi mafuta ali noninoni pakamwa.
Kumbukilani kunali a Wadi, a Kaliwo, a Nampota. Onse sianathe bwino anatsamwidwa. Ganizilani uko mwachokela komaso mtunda mwatsala nawo.
This is what some of us expected!! If the whistle blower remained mute Matemba could have kept this under the carpet!! It was easy to tell he was not happy the story went viral!! Mulibe manyaziiiiiii with your immorality!! If the account was not known by DPP SG and had sole signatory, APM it means it was him alone who knew the account details and the master minder of the dirt!! Thus other than APM who do you think gave Karim those details? Dzimbamvaaaaaaaaaaaa dzotumbwa ndi ndalama za kubaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Kodi galu amaluma mbuye wake? Akangoyetsera kuluma mbuye wake amati galu aphedwe ali ndi chiwewe. A Matembawo mwakhululukire ali ndi Mbuye wao sangalume ndithu ali nkhonde mwa mbuye wao kudikira chakudya cha lero.
I don’t get it only Bottoman and Karim are being charged. This remind me of a comment here there the person said they will arrest the Minors to clean the big fish involved.
Sorry Bottoman and don’t worry if they continue with charges you will be realised next year
A father gets into shoprite, steals a loaf of bread and gives it to his hungry children. Who should be arrested for stealing? Those who ate the bread or the one who got the bread and feed his children?
The ACB must not base their point on the account name of DPP. In banking, the owner of the account, the one who has all the right to withdraw from the account is the one to be seen as the account owner and not the name. The name can be a mask. Now for the ACB to base their bullshit view on the account name and then to say pumbwa did not benefit, it’s a mockery to the Malawian populace and its reasoning. The leaked report stated that pumbwa widthrew K65m from the account and further discovered that pumbwa is the sole signatory. Am now quite sure that our laws have nothing to do with the plight of a Malawian. We need change. The change must include prosecution of a sitting president.
If a CEO of a company XYZ Ltd has opened a bank account (in the name of XYZ Ltd) to which he is the only signatory, is this a personal account or a company account? Or to put it another way, as is normal for most large companies where bank accounts have two signatories, do the accounts belong to the two signatories or the company?
Then when the signatories sign a cheque to pay for raw materials the company bought, who us the beneficiary? The company or the signatories?
ACB simply had no evidence that can stand Scrutiny in court to show that APM benefited from the money deposited in the account to which he was the only signatory.
The evidence people are talking about can only be in the court of public opinion
There is a simple rule of the thumb in money laundering and fraud investigation “follow the money” and identify the culprits. This investigations did just that. Organised criminals thrive on technical limitations of the law. It seems our Presidents are becoming masters at this.
Corruption in ACB. The report that revealed this was accepted by ACB and why change now? You think we are fools? We are not. Stupid ACB.
The acb is clearly incompetent.
It is confusing issues. Apm wasn’t involved in the tender. But the dealing with the proceeds.
So for instance did anyone ask apm to confirm whether he indeed opened the account? Whether it was opened in accordance with dpp constitution? When he first became aware of the donation; whether he had previous knowledge of his identity, his business and whether he thought it normal in the malawian economy for one to donate and receive k145m.
Since the donation did apm inquire into the identity and business of the donor?
Those questions will tell us whether apm was aware that the money wasn’t clean. And whether or not he’s guilty of some offence though not necessarily coruption.
Speaking for myself I don’t believe apm wasn’t aware that the money wasn’t clean.
Koma zoona “DONATION” ya K145 million sungaidabwe munthu? As a sole signatory make follow ups? Where is ti from? Even K1m, K5m, K10m, etc. Sungadwapo vindalama vonsevi vachoka kuti? No phone call or letter of acknowledgement or appreciation of receipt?
Olo iwowo a president if he makes even a K1 million donation to church, cultural grouping our MBC will be playing that clip for days, weeks. Then K145 million donation is just swept under the carpet, nobody knew about it, this Indian should be a super-rich bastard, multibillionaire.
SHAME!!!
if DPP was the Beneficially then it means the Party has to be Prosecuted together with its Leader and if found guilty there’ll be convicted and will not participate in General elections. on the other hand we have seen people being convicted on Cash gate charges just because the cash gate money was channeled through their Bank Accounts, does the ACB mean to tell us that those people were wrongly convicted?
No one was convicted during cashgate for merely channeling money through their bank accounts. They were the ones who were paid and all of them benefitted by keeping and using part of the loot
Kanthu ako, so many qestions without answers, by the way who requested the Donation within DPP, was the request in writing?When was the donation requested?Who acknowledged the donation, was the acknowledgement of receipt of the donation in writing? when was the acknowledgement made, was it made known to DPP NGC? Did DPP learn anaything from Atcheya Mk1.7 billion corruption case also bordering on channelling donations to personal bank account?
We heard that the President earned alot of money when he was in America, why not donate to DPP to build its headquarters rather than relying on a small Company like this one which embarrassingly had to wait for corrupt money from Police to donate?
ACB is supposed to uphold the law and defend the public from abuse of power, corruption and any threat to the state. In this instance it seems ACB is the creation of the president therefore unable to hold him accountable. Simple question, is Peter’s hand in cookie jar or not? We know that he can’t be charged and prosecuted by virtue of being a sitting president; but we want ACB to make a declaration that he is a suspect in well orchestrated scam. I am sure sure YAS will pursue the case he is out from the state house.
This is a joke
i now understand why this dirty, toothless old fool was celebrating when his filfthy mps shot down the bill to have an independent ACB!!!!!!!
If what Mr Matemba has done is good, it’s a sign that Corruption is now not a problem in Malawi but Malawi it’s self is Corruption.
Suppose all cases of Corruption in Malawi has the same ending,why to have Ant corruption Bureau? When did the corruption became corruption where there is no Antcorruption? Why wasting time with this Team while we all know that they are not there to fight corruption? Why have we decided to be ignorant that this team is a source and or they are the ones who are Masters of thieves? Do you want to tell me that if indeed they are there to fight for poor Malawians who are struggling to pay tax including their poor relatives they would have smiling on the system we have to day? Do you know that they would be the ones on for front raising our beautiful Flag against this? If indeed they’re are there for us, do they feel the same way you feel? If they feel the same way you feel, why are they corrupt inside their heart not to work for Malawians who are suffering? Indeed when the time to clear things will come Matemba will be cleared, I wish I would have time to speak against those who think that they are there for Malawians while they know that they are there to take what is not theirs.
Malawians for how long are we going to suffer like this where lies has become the Governing system? If given another chance, are we possible to change our Country to be come a place which can attract the same spirit of working hard? There is another chance coming, let’s try by all means and with all our best to change our country.
God bless Malawi.
What a load of legal crap! The account is managed and run by Mutharika, he was aware that money was put in the account from Karim, he then decided to spend the money on a building for DPP, and now you tell us that Mutharika’s hands are clean on this one? If i get proceeds of crime or a bribe, and i use it to pay fees for my cousin does that mean i am clean because i didn’t pay fees for myself????? Should we prosecute the cousin? or perhaps the bloody school???!!!! mxiiiii!
This was expected from this politically compromised institution. Obviously Bottomani becomes an easy catch being the brother to Akweni. Shame on us Malawians!
This is a mockery to Malawians, you say the President did not benefit personally but DPP. Who is the president of DPP???????????????????????????? Is it not Mutharika??????? This is sad. Now that we now that DPP is a party that is funded by corrupt money, What is ACB going to do about it??????????????????? I don’t think we need ACB in its current form.
mr matemba, i hope you know that if a person signs is liable for his or her signature… then DON’T SAY THAT the president is not concenned, but is DIPWIPWI which is concenned…. mukunamatu inu……. tikuchotsani come 23 2019 muonanso!!!!
Oshiiii my Malawi,
Please lets close this story because the aim was to tarnish the name of Peter Mutharika lets concentrate on other important development issues.
what do you mean when you say tarnish, yet he has refunded the money?
@ Noxy
Stupid
Tarnish what anaba uyu ukumukhalila kumbuyo bwanji
Well, those are the facts of the case. Malawians are just emotional human beings. When a bus company has an accident, I thought people sue the company and not the CEO. If you buy a car from a dealership and it is faulty, do you sue the GM, the stores keeper or do u sue the company. Everywhere regardless of who is CEO or Signatory, if its an entity we sue the organisation. If money was put in DPP account, its DPP who benefitted. If APM dies today, are we going to say beneficiary of the K145mill is dead basi the case ithe? APM is answerable as CEO but during court proceedings people like Jefule wa Jefule can be called to represent DPP.
And you want this CEO to keep his job?? No one is being emotional, DPP under the leadership of Peter Mutharika benefited from proceeds of crime. Is this different from Lutepo giving gifts to PP? Why did your “CEO” said JB was corrupt? There is no sense in what people want us to believe. Peter Mutharika knew what was happening but now want to pretend that he did not know.
With Matemba on the driving seat it surprises me nothing at All
ACB has to GO back to their leaked documents before announcing the clearance. SHUFIT. my foot. Mr. R. Matemba being a professional man go back to your drawing board. do not comment fast and unwisely. musasiye mulomo. phuma ayi
unless Org clears clear thieves Chaponda, Nankhumwa, APM! how did Karim get the account details again? 2019 operation chosani mbava basi….utm or mcp im ok just need . change these same old fools games gats to go. we need sustainable electricity ife.
Hahahaha
If DPP was a beneficially and the president is the head of DPP, therefore the head of DPP and all other benefitted. I know R. Matemba is fearing for his job, but thats the logic. And What is the role of the sole signatory inthis case can ACB explain. e.g. If the mango is stolen and as a head of my family I give my family to eat. am I not a beneficially? Whooh LOGIC MATEMBA LOGIC IS MISSING HERE
Squeeze Karim and Bottom to reveal the real truth. If Peter was the only signatory to this so called DPP Account then it means he (Peter) can’t be separated from it’s registered legal entity (DPP). Peter and DPP are the same person in this instance. If Botoman and Karim have a case to answer then Sonia Peter bar the immunity.
That is what I was expecting from ACB – Matemba.
When firing ward, Late Bingu once said: “No one can be GREATER than the appointing authority”
In this case Mr. R. Matemba was appointed by APM. As sane as Matemba is , he can not bite or harm Peter.
The president is not cleared in this scandal he is only relieved as a sitting president. Let him come out of his presidency. He will be taken to task to answer charges about his involvement.
When did he know that there was money in the account to withdraw the K65 million. He was waiting for the K145 million to be deposited into the account and he decided to withdraw.
He is a thief basi.