ACB, Fiscal Police probe 250 missing passports
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Fiscal Police have launched separate investigations into the missing of 250 passport books from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services headquarters.
ACB senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala confirmed conducting criminal investigations to complement the one being carried out by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security for administrative purposes.
The ministry instituted its probe into the missing passports in May this year after Mzimba West legislator Harry Mkandawire (People’s Party- PP) raised the matter in Parliament.
In a written response, Ndala said the graft-busting institution’s criminal probe would dig deep to expose circumstances behind the missing passport books and establish the motive for which the loss was occasioned, among other focus areas.
She said: “The past cases of corrupt issuance of passports to non-Malawians prompted the bureau to launch an investigation. This is a matter of public interest.
“The passport books are a property of the Malawi Government and any illegal issuance of such documents has far-reaching consequences not just to the Immigration Department, but to the nation as a whole.”
In recent years, the Malawi passport has emerged as one of the most porous documents within the region with hundreds of foreign nationals, mostly Nigerians, having easily obtained it for illicit deeds.
Ndala observed that the illegal Malawi passport holders taint the image of the country once they commit offences while in possession of the revered document.
In a separate interview, Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security principal secretary Sam Madula also confirmed the separate probes being undertaken by ACB and the Fiscal Police.
However, National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera requested for more time to get details on the Fiscal Police’s independent probe.
In June this year, government dispatched a team of investigators to South Africa as part of investigations into the country’s record passport fraud that also resulted into the arrest of a Nigerian citizen with one of the missing documents.
While in South Africa, among others, the team reportedly interrogated the Nigerian who was arrested with one of the missing passports numbered MW 853507 while on his way to London, United Kingdom (UK) and posed as a Malawian named Vincent Banda from Mangochi.
The team was assisted by an immigration officer from the Malawi Embassy in South Africa and South African State officials. n
