DPP presses ACB to produce K4.2bn cashgate beneficiary list

Director of Public Prosecutions ( DPP ) Mary Kachale has applied to the Lilongwe High Court for a production notice order to force Anti Corruption Bureau director release a document believed to contain some serious information related to a case involving convicted former tourism assistant Leonard Kalonga.

Kachale made the application Monday before presiding Judge Fiona Mwale asking the court to intervene and issue a production order to the ACB to release a document to contain details of how cashgate money were being distributed among the beneficiaries which the investigators of the body got when they searched the house of Kalonga.

Kalonga was convicted on his own plea of guilty for stealing K3.7 billion ($6.3 million) in the ongoing Cashgate trials.

The top prosecutor told the court that her office has failed to solve the issue internally as she has been asking the ACB director general Lucas Kondowe to release the document since last year but up to now she is yet to be served with it.

“I as the DPP was not aware of its [the document] existence,” said Kachale.

She said the document is “vital” in as far as Cashgate cases are concerning to know the distribution list of cashgate money.
Kachale also said her colleague leading in Cashgate prosecution, Reyneck Matemba who is ACB Deputy Director General were not aware of the said document until when they were asked by the defence lawyer of Kalonga why the state is not bringing it in court which can help them to know the truth that Korong was just a distributor and a messenger of plundered money.

The DPP told the court that her call to have the document has yielded nothing, and asked the court to issue a production order to ACB director to release the said document.

“We failed to resolve the matter internally,” she said.

According to Kachale a caution statement that was recorded during questioning with ACB investigator Kondwani Zulu on 22 October 2013 has some questions about the said document.

“I’m not turning against my sister arm in government but this is about justice and we need to ensure justice “, Kachale told Nyasa Times outside the court.

When she was asked if the public must read much into it, Kachale said she has done this deliberately for the public to know having failed to get the said document.

But defence lawyer, Theu has asked the court to throw away the application as that issue doesn’t concern the court as it is their internal matters between the two offices.

Meanwhile Justice Fiona Mwale has set the date of 2nd March 2016 as the day the court will make a ruling on the application.