Cashgate lawyers named: Ex-Malawi army chief Odillo implicated

Malawi Government on Thursday released the Baker Tilly forensic audit report into the cashgate scandal which contains a list of 49 individuals who between them had a hand in siphoning K24 billion of public funds.

Former commander Henry Odillo and his deputy Clement Kafuwa have been implicated as they were signatories several cheques, K3 billion to International Procurement Services (IPS) owned by chief cashgate suspect Oswald Lutepo.

They were also signatories to a K1.5 billion cheques to South Africa based Thuso Group owned by Alexander Banda and Nelson Kauwa.

The auditors have however identified nine people who are linked to companies involved in cashgate, among them son to the former president, Roy Kachale.

Kachale has however only been mentioned to have had an affair with one of the implicated cashgate suspect Laura Savala but himself not linked to the financial plunder.

“Anecdotal evidence would suggest Laura Savala and Akajuwe Roy Kachale Banda are in a relationship as girlfriend and boyfriend. Akajuwe Roy Kachale Banda stood in the Parliamentary Elections as a People Party candidate,” reads a note in the report.

It was not independently verified if indeed Roy Kachale had a relationship with Savala. Kachale is married with four children and Laura is also married.

The report also said four payments totalling K140, 896, 121 to three different legal practitioners in Malawi between July and September 2013 “using cashgate funds”.

According to the report, Ralph and Alfords formerly owned by former Justice Minister Ralph Kasambara and Wapona Kita received “the highest amount being Mk57, 393,800 which wa paid primarily from IPS (of Lutepo).”

Another law firm Knight and Knight  (of  Yambani Mulemba and  Noel Chalamanda) and the Joe and Max Chambers were also beneficiaries of cashgate funds.

Auditors recommend that there should be money laundering checks on the transferred funds to the law firms and that where “breached are identified, the Malawi Law Society should be informed.”

Some 68 civil servants and business people are already on trial charged with graft.

Ex-justice minister Ralph Kasambara and four others face trial for the attempted murder of a former treasury official Paul Mphwiyo who was on the verge of exposing the corruption ring. Mphwiyo himself has also been charged of money laundering and theft.

Foreign donors, who provide 40% of Malawi’s budget, froze vital aid worth around $150m in response.

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