Roll-call of Cashgaters: Mphwiyo, others charged with 7 counts

The list of those arrested in Cashgate crimes so far reads like a roll-call of high-profile people as former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo and three other suspected Auzius Kazombo Mwale, Clemence Mmadzi and Roosevelt Ndovi charged with seven counts.

The four are jointly being accused of defrauding about K2.4 billion in 2013 through various businesspersons without rendering services or providing goods to the Government of Malawi in what was christened as a Cashgate scandal.

A prosecuting lawyer Dennis Chipao said the suspects who were already arrested on the Cashgate offence faces amended charges.

Chipao said the State brought the suspects to Lilongwe Magistrate Court on Monday after their arrest on Saturday “ for committal” of the case to the High Court.

Senior resident magistrate Chisomo Msokera committed the matter to the High Court forthwith.

The State lawyer said Mphwiyo and three others will appear in the High Court on Wednesday and where bail applications can be made.

Mphwiyo, David Kandoje, Kazombo Mwale, Mmadzi, George Banda, Michela Mphatso, Samuel Mzanda and Maxwell Namata are facing charges of fraud, negligence by public office, money laundering, theft by public servant, theft by servant and conspiracy to defraud government amounting to K2 446 817 450.49.

The former budget director’s shooting at the gate of his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe on September 13 2013 is believed to have revealed the Cashgate affair.

Former president Joyce Banda ordered an audit which British forensic auditor, Baker Tilly, undertook between April and September 2013 and established that about K24 billion was siphoned from public coffers through dubious payments, inflated invoices and goods or services never rendered.

In May this year, a financial analysis report by audit and business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also established that about K577 billion in public funds could not be reconciliated between 2009 and December 31 2014.