Malawi anti-graft body concludes report on 2 deputy speakers  

Graft busting body, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has it has concluded a report on allegations that First Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka-Chilenje and Second Deputy Speaker Clement Chiwaya dubiously claimed housing allowances amounting to millions by signing tenancy agreements for their own houses.

ACB deputy director Reneck Matemba said the report will be made available in the coming weeks.

Mcheka –Chilenje and Chiwaya were accused that they swindled Parliament money through dubious claims since their election to the high offices.

They allegedly  pocket K500, 000 each every month for house allowances, K250,000 more than their entitlement as they live in their personal houses.

“We have concluded the report and we have made recommendations. The report will be released to the public in the coming days or weeks but very soon,” he said.

Matemba said apart from the two deputy speakers, ACB also interrogated Speaker Richard Msowoya because issues of Parliamentary Service Commission came up during the interrogation of the two deputy speakers who survived pressure from the back benchers to resign.

“We want this matter to come to an end, we are keen on this” he said.

Chilenje went into parliament as an independent MP having failed to win Democratic Progressive Party primary elections in the run up to the 2014 elections but now she returned to her former party whilst Chiwaya is a United Democratic Front MP, a party which is a bedfellow of the DPP in parliament.

Legal and constitutional commentator Edge Kanyongolo demanded that the deputy speakers should pay back what they unjustly got from taxpayers to avoid setting a bad precedent for future occupants of the office.

Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) ordered that they no longer get rentals.