New thefts in Malawi govt not cashgates, Accountant General tells MPs

Accountant General William Matambo has said the current thefts of government money cannot be described as cashgate.

Matambo said this on Tuesday in Lilongwe when he faced parliamenntarians from.a joint parliametary committee of Public Accounts Committee and Budget committee.

“To me, cashgate is what happened in 2013, the looting of money but this is not the case now. What we are seeing now is corruption or theft different from the one what happeed in 2013,” he said.

He said in 2013, the thieves tampered with the integrated financial management system (ifmis).

Accountant General  therefore said the theft of K258 million at Teveta or K7 million at Law Commission was different from the one which happened in 2013 when over K30 billion was stolen at Capital Hiill.

“You cannot call what happened at Teveta or Law Commission cashgate, no. We sealed all cashgate loopholes,” he said.

Matambo said the government has pprocured and implemented new ifmis security tools, build capacity for information security officers for Ifmis to ensure that no one logs in into Ifmis without approval.

In addition, Matambo said the government is now buying a new Ifmis system.

He assured the legislators that there would not be a repeat of the cashgate in Malawi.

Matambo said the only way to stop the current spate of thefts of government money was to change the hearts of its employees, sensitizing them that theft is bad.

He said this was why the office has asked for K300 million for training of its staff.