PAC calls for independent forensic audit in Malawi treasury
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Malawi Parliament has called on for independent forensic audit into the current wave of money laundering scandals emanating from Capital Hill, the seat of Malawi government, which has seen several officers arrested.
PAC Chairperson, opposition lawmaker Henry Mussa disclosed to Nyasa Times in an interview that he moved the motion during a meeting on Wednesday which was approved by other members for government to allow external auditors assess its accounts.
PAC’s move comes in the wake of massive money laundering cases at Capital Hill, Lilongwe dubbed ‘Cash-gate scandal’, with several officers being caught with millions of foreign and local currencies in their possession.
“It’s our constitutional mandate as PAC to ensure that there is transparency and fiscal discipline in the expenditure of government finances. This is why we are calling for external audit,” Mussa said.
He said the external auditors would, aside dealing with government accounts, assess the whole government accounts system and uncover loopholes at the Capital Hill leading to the loss of millions of tax-payers money under the current Cash-gate Scandal.
“It is worrisome to note that public resources and huge some of money is being stolen by trusted officers. This calls for special audit to uncover system lapses and seal such loophole,” said Mussa.
Mussa said the Committee has since agreed to summon Chief Secretary Hawa Ndilowe, Auditor’s General, Secretary to the Treasury and the Accountant’s General this Friday over the same cash plundering.
Several accounts officers at government departments including the Accountant’s General office have been arrested in the past weeks in relation to the massive money laundering incidents at Capital Hill.
Tension is growing up in the country with Civil Society Organizations, Church leaders and opposition parties calling on government to wake up from its slumber and appealed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to bring graft cases to the very end to uproot the vice in the civil service.
And President Joyce Banda on Monday retaliated on her zeal to fight corruption saying, “there will be no sacred cows in my quest to root out corruption in Malawi and please be rest assured that no official allegedly involved in shady dealings will be spared from the long arm of the law.”
