Accountant General allowance-gate suspects granted bail

Chief Resident Magistrate Madalitso Khoswe Chimwaza has granted conditional bail to seventeen staffers at the Accountant General’s office suspected in an allowance fraud, after she reserved her ruling on the same on Wednesday.

CRM Chimwaza granted the suspects bail before ordering them to pay a cash bond of K300,000 and produce two traceable sureties who bonded K10,000,000 non cash.

The seventeen were also ordered to surrender to the court all traveling documents and not to leave the country without permission from the court

The accountants were arrested by fiscal police on suspicion that they were getting money from government agencies through allowances.

The civil servants are linked to fraud allegations suspected to have happened between September 2021 and June 2022, in which they allegedly corruptly received money amounting to K276 million.

Reports say they were pocketing more than 40 days of allowances per month.

They were formally charged with three counts of public officer receiving property, official corruption and money laundering.

The arrest of the seventeen workers brought the total number of public officers arrested in connection with alleged fraud at the AG’s office to 40.

The seventeen are Jane Zimba, Mr Chilimampunga, Nitta Mtuwa Vashi, Catherine Chigowo, Mrs Mfuyeni, Richard Shuko, George P. Banda, Mr Kantchewa, Dumping Kathyole, Mrs Montero, Willy Chambwinja, Mwayiwawo Chingson Binal, Catherine Mapulanga, Mr Jack Batani, Atuhokele Chitete, Kondwani Thomson Chimwala and Rose Mwalwimba.