No minister involved in K236bn Cashgate, ACB informs Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)director Reyneck Matemba has updated the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee on the unaccounted for K236 billion in public funds, saying according to his investigations, no cabinet member was involved in the 13 files of the suspected Cashgate, the country’s largest financial scandal suspected to have occurred between January 2009 and December 2014.
Matemba was speaking in Lilongwe on Tuesday when addressing members of the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee who demanded a report on the bureau’s operations.
Opposition lawmaker Kamlepo Kalua, who is Public Accounts Committee (PAC) vice chairperson, has been claiming that he knows of names of seven cabinet ministers implicated in the mismanagement of the public funds.
But Matemba, who became head of the ACB last year after serving as deputy director general for several years, said: “No Cabinet Minister was involved or mentioned in the [audit query].”
President Peter Mutharika branded as a lie and fabrication the rumour that there are seven cabinet ministers involved in the K236 billion Cashgate scandal.
“This is a total lie; a fabrication of a certain malicious, vicious and irresponsible editor,” sMutharika said without mentioning the name of the editor and the newspaper.
In the audit query, from the 44 companies investigations, only 13 files were completed and passed on to the ACB detailing payments to 13 companies from the Malawi Police Services (MPS) and Malawi Defence Force (MDF) a total of K17.1 billion, representing about 20 percent of the figure the auditors were investigating.
The procuring entities are reported to have used restricted tender and single source procurement to cover up anomalies between 2009 and December 31 2014.
But ACB explained that there was no evidence to suspect corruption in the manner five companies, which the bureau cleared, dealt with government.
The ACB cleared the companies based on the Attorney General’s legal opinion which concluded that there were legitimate contracts and that goods were supplied to Malawi Defence Force (MDF), Malawi Police Service (MPS) and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
The Cashgate theft is the biggest financial scandal in the history of Malawi, which depends heavily on foreign aid.
Among other issues, the committee was concerned that ACB may have lost some cases because of political interference.
The committee had earlier expressed concern over how businessperson Greselder Jeffrey, who is a parliamentarian and secretary general of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is suing the government for K70 billion compensation after winning a case she and three others were accused of abusing K187 million.
Matemba said he will ensure that he fights in court to save public funds.
In their K70 billion claim from the government, Jeffrey and the other three are suing for loss of business, defamation and malicious prosecution, among other matters.
The claim comes after the court acquittal in the K187 million case during the Bakili Muluzi administration when she and some Ministry of Education officials were accused to have stolen public funds in an audit report of March 2000 that exposed the alleged scam.
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Reyneck, if the abused money was drawn from government confers, then there is no way the responsible Ministers could not be involved!! Every sane person knows that Ministers in Government participate in decision making as regards who to award big contracts!! Remember Sam Mpasu’s Field York scandal………………………….!!
Why are you always emphasising on the obvious and why labouring yourself, defending Ministers!! Assuming those mentioned companies start mentioning the Ministers you are defending Matemba the way ADMARC Mulumbe guy did, won’t that be involvement? What shall you do? Are you telling us you shall leave them scoot free? Won’t what you doing look like you are telling the alleged companies something like you are saying NEVER mention Ministersr when cases start? Won’t your acts not look like you are aiding in defending/shielding those who may be would-be-culprits from prosecution?
Inunso magwiridwe a ncthito anu akumakhala ododometsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………………………………!! You seem to be having sleepless nights Reyneck when people talk about some Ministers involved in the matter? Why should it be you defending the same thing for so many times…………………………??????????????????????????????????
Pafuka utsi Reyneck pali motoooooooooooooooooo oowotchela matemba!! Ndangodutsamo, sindidatchole………………………………………!!
Terrible, enkindling the brewing anger!
Malawians should not be surprised why this country is getting poor and poorer. Thieves and their cronies can celebrate that their names have been cleared and are innocent. They are not!
The reality is that K236 billion is gone, unaccounted for, stolen and the nation poorer than before. FACT!
It appears the purpose of ACB in Malawi is to redeem people with influence or known crooks with money of wrong-doing NOT necessarily to investigate the ROT and find real culprits. Like in this case thieves have patted Matemba on the back; “job well-done, we have walked scout-free”.
SHAME on THIEVES!!!
Yes we all know but ministers are in 577 billion
is it possible for this parliamentary committee to summon Kamulepo to tell the nation where he got the information about “rotten ministers” Did he lie to the nation as the deputy chair of Public Accounts Committe (PAC).
Myopic thinking at best………………………………! Sane people “ONLY” may appreciate that there is no grain of truth in what matemba is saying…………………………………………………………………….. & nothing to celebrate about here!! How long will he tell us this? When is he taking the implicated companies to court then? What is causing the delay? Matemba is shielding “something………………….. period! Actions speak louder than words goes the saying………….
The audit report was initially doctored at the direction of the prince of thieves to smartly remove the names of the 7 ministers.
Some of you still want ministers to be implicated. But do you agree that corruption can happen without the knowldge of ministers? I wished I was working for the governement so that I could know how the systems work
During Joice Banda the report was made public and all idiots were prosecuted now the report is hidden at ACB aaaaa
Mark my word, except for those already convicted, all others in the cash gate saga and the related cases will go free. Chaponda will be freed. Kasambara too. Likewise Mphwiyo. Joyce Banda will be a sacred cow! Malawi ndi motodi anzanganu.
If this much money was stolen and we are told ministers did not even know. What does that tell us about our country and those we entrust with the responsibility to lead us. Except for late Mpasu and Mwawa no politician has been convicted of corruption. Does it mean that our politicians are clean? Maybe they are.
Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Treasury (Minister of Finance) are the Accountable Officers of the ministries they oversee. It is therefore common sense that should massive looting occur, under their watch, these Accounting Officers need to be held accountable or even locked, up for negligence in discharging their basic responsibilities. It is their fiduciary duty to protect national assets and if they’re unable to do so, then they shouldn’t be appointed in those posts. The high salaries they command do come with responsibilities and this is one of such responsibilities. M’nkuyu zodya mwana zinapota mkulu. The Public Finance Management Act is very clear that the ministers and PSs should be held accountable for negligence that happens under their watch. Secondly, if the government is indeed serious about dealing with corruption, they should have appointed independent forensic auditors (even from abroad); the skills we have at ACB are so questionable. If these investigators are unable to solve their own small family businesses, what chance do they have to meaningfully investigate cashgate. we have mediocre investigators and 3rd grade prosecutors…..and thats a fact.
MAFIAS
CROOKS
FIELD MARSHALS
MALAWIANS LET’S TIGHTEN OUR
BELTS
THE BATTLE IS GETTING TOUGHER
AND TOUGHER
ALIBE POLOBOLEMU !!
Malawians need to stop the stupid mentality of being happy when we hear bad news without verification. Just a rumour from idiot Kamlepo that 7 ministers are involved was good news to celebrate. President Peter Mutharika has been saying time and again that there is no minister involved in this saga. If you have evidence that this happened bring it in the open but nobody did so. Today, we are still not happy to hear that no minister was involved. You will be happy if one cooks the story that 7 or a minister is involved. I tell you the same will happen with Chaponda case. You have no evidence but you are happy to see Chaponda in jail. If it was you or your father, would you be happy to suffer with unfounded accusation?
How could he say that when even the ACB had indicated that they had not completed reading all the documents, infact, they said at that time that they had not received all the documents. Out Malawi ACB pretend that they are investigating documents when in the actual fact they are cleaning the documents. With DPP coming back to run government all theft done between 2009 and 2014 will never be truthfully investigated.
Exactly my sentiments Magufili. We have lots of noise makers and non thinkers in Malawi. Too em0tional on everything.
In this case does it means Madam Joyce Banda is also clean? If that’s the case why delaying these results. Was there any motive behind attempting to paralyse
In any civilised and moral country in the world, the cashgate scandal was enough for a sitting president to resign together with his cabinet ministers. Even if they didn’t benefit from the looting but would have burn driven by the fact that it happened under their watch. In Malawi we have the opposite and in fact the naive Malawians even vote such unscrupulous political leaders back into power. There’s indeed a problem with us Malawians and certainly isn’t just the politicians.
My simple advice to Matemba is that know that you are fighting one of the mafia group inside the fearest party in Malawi. Awa achina Deff wa Defrey ali mommo!!!!
WE DON’T HAVE A TRUSYED ACB IN MALAWI.
The statement should be
No evidence showing that no minister was involved….. The truth of the matter is that behind every ministry that was involved in this cashgate there is high chances that the minister knew what was happening or was involved!! This is a fact. For example is it true that no PS was involved for those ministries where its officers were arrested for cashgate? The obvious answer is no. Why? According to Government operational practices, rarely can a ministry generate a voucher without the knowledge of the PS. Then how come that ministry officers could be siphoning money without the knowledge of the PS let alone the Minister. Bodza lenileni. Ingonenani kuti some forces influenced the ACB to ignore the inroads signs and evidence. Full stop.SURELY I ACCEPT WE MALAWIAN ARE FOOLS TO ACCEPT THIS NONSENSE.
Koma DPP you have discovered that the mojority of Malawians are foods. You can cook up any story and they will believe you. ACB top officials lero mwadya. Masikono but. Wake up one day you will have a car accident or food and water poison. Bottled water which you drink during meetings can also be poisoned. They use a syringe to inject zaozo kuti ukafele kwao.Maxson mbendela alikuti?