ACB confirms DPP paid back K145m to Karim but money withheld

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Reyneck Matemba has said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) returned to Pioneer Investment the contentious K145 million donation suspected to have been proceeds of crime in much-publicised Malawi Police Service (MPS) food rations scam but the moneyhas been withheld.

Matemba said the money was given to Pioneer’s boss Zameer Karim  but ACB immediately froze the account immediately after he deposited the money in his bank account.

“I can confirm that the ACB, through the Financial Intelligence  Authority (FIA), froze Mr Zameer Karim’s bank account immediately after the K145 million  was deposited into his bank account,” said Matemba.

He said it is the money that was given by to Karim by the DPP.

Matemba said the money will be withheld until the matter is concluded in court.

DPP publicist, who is also government spokesperson, Nicholas Dausi, said the party felt it right to have the money returned because of public misunderstanding.

Dausi said the money was a donation made to the party and received in good faith through President Peter Mutharika who is the sole signatory to the DPP account which received the ‘suspicious’ funding.

Following a leaked Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) document which implicated the DPP and President Mutharika in a police food ration scandal, the DPP-led government has come under heavy public criticism with human rights defenders calling for the resignation of President Mutharika.

A human rights activist Gift Trapence, who is also deputy chairperson for Human Rights Defenders Coalition which has been pushing for justice on the matter, said DPP should have paid back the money to government coffers transparently and that there is no proof of transaction between DPP  and  Karim on payback.

ACB boss Matemba is on record  as having said bank records and other documents he got from President Mutharika himself show that DPP, not the President  was the ultimate beneficiary of the K145 million.

ACB cannot prosecute a sitting President because he has immunity.