Parliament to meet after Forensic audit report release -Phoya
The Malawi National Assembly will not convene unless the Forensic Audit Report, expected to lay bare the mishaps that led to the looting of millions of US dollars by some civil servants at Capital Hill, is released.
Henry Phoya, Leader of the House, said government does not have enough money to enable parliament meet twice before its dissolution next month ahead of the May 20 tripartite elections.
“Government doesn’t have enough money,” said Phoya. “We met as business committee and we have agreed that we should meet once the forensic audit report is ready for frugality’s sake.”
He added: “Once the report is ready, the President in consultation with the Speaker [Henry Chimunthu Banda] will then call for a meeting.”
Phoya dismissed any foul play in the making of the decision, saying that it was made with national interests at heart.
“The Report is the only thing that will cool down Malawians as far as the issue of the cashgate is concerned.
“I don’t think even those who are working on it [the Report] would in any way want to delay the report deliberately. I don’t think it should take many days before the report is released.”
This week the report was supposed to be presented to Finance Minister Maxwell Mkwezalamba for tabling before parliament but was referred back to the auditors to make sure “it suits international standards.”
National Audit Office (NAO) spokesperson Thomas Chafunya said the report will publish who, when and how the looting of public money was done.
“It is almost ready and everything will be made available for Malawians to see,” said Chafunya.
According to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), over K20 billion is said to have disappeared mysteriously in the looting – regarded locally and internationally as the worst fraud in Malawi’s economy.
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