Chakwera accuses Mutharika of shielding ‘cashgate hyenas’ in cabinet

Leader of opposition in parliament and president of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Lazarus Chakwera has faulted the Peter Mutharika led-government  of shielding seven cabinet ministers  implicated in the K230 billion Cashgate report.

Mutharika  has  said he will not act on any minister implicated because the Auditor General has not mentioned them despite names  already in public domain after a leak from the National Audit Office..

“The President too is anxiously waiting for the names of such individuals and organisations so that necessary investigations and corrective measures can be taken,” State House press office said.

State  House said it is “pure misinformation and lack of sincerity”  for some individuals and media houses to be accusing the President of not acting on Cashgate ministers when information on the individuals is not available.

President, the State House statement said,  should not be expected to make policy decisions based on rumours and speculation.

But Chakwera said there is no justification for hiding the names of people involved in the fraud since Malawians need to know the truth.

“I think this is just a way of looking into how they can protect those involved in the cashgate scam because we do not see any reason to hide the names,” said Chakwera.

He added that everything need to be let out so that those involved in the corrupt practices should face the long arm of the law.

Vice chair of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee  Kamlepo Kalua dismissed the State House statement as lies, saying the Auditor General provided the names to both the committee and Anti Corruption Bureau.

Social media is awash with the names that include Mutharika’s strong man, Agriculture minister George Chaponda, Mutharika’s right handman, Finance minister Goodall Gondwe and Mutharika’s inner circle of Labour minister Henry Mussa as being amongst the seven.

But Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale has stopped the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), National Audit Office (NAO) and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) from releasing names of companies and businesspersons implicated in the K230 billion Cashgate report as government is yet to verify any wrongdoing on part of the implicated companies.

The legal opinion was requested by Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa  following a raging public debate on whether the names of the companies should be released to the public after auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) analysed financial transactions in government between 2009 and 2014.