Name 7 rotten ministers and Cashgate suspects in 14 days, PAC tells Auditor General

The Auditor General Stepheson Kamphasa has been asked by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to disclose names of serving Cabinet ministers implicated in the recent forensic audit report christened as K577 billion Cashgate.

PAC chairperson Alekeni Menyani has said   it is against the spirit of fighting corruption when the Auditor General’s office and other government arms   are trying to frustrate the committee from “pursuing the case further.”

Menyani said Malawians are not fools to be tossed around like tennis when it is clear there are names of suspects in the 13 case files of the K577 billion Cashgate.

“I have given the Auditor General 14 days to surrender the names [of cashgate suspects] to the office of the Speaker,” said Menyani.

He warned that if Auditor General will not name the thieves in the financial scandal, PAC   will name them.

PAC  vice-chairperson Kamlepo Kalua  had been vocal in demanding the dismissal of the said seven Cabinet ministers named in the forensic audit report covering the period 2009 to December 2014 which established that about K236 billion and not K577 billion in public funds as initially estimated could not be accounted for.

Kalua, who is also Rumphi East Member of Parliament (People’s Party-PP) and PP third vice-president, said the DPP-led government is comprised of extra ordinary thieves that are geared to destroy the country’s economy.

“When I expose corruption scandals in the government to save the public money, other people start talking ill of me,” he said.

The K577 billion was suspected to have been siphoned from public coffers according to a data analysis by Price water house coopers (PwC) of May 2015 but the unreconciled funds have been revised downwards to about K236 billion.

But President Peter Mutharika has claimed none of his Cabinet ministers are mentioned in the ‘grand corruption’ report.

“ There are no seven ministers, I asked Accountant General, Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB] director, and there are no seven names,” said Mutharika.

Mutharika also challenged PAC to proceed and investigate the wealth of his brother and former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika.

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