Cashgate: Mphwiyo escapes fresh arrest
Former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo yesterday escaped possible arrest after instantly replacing one of his sureties who had pulled out, on allegation that Mphwiyo planned to jump bail.
Crispin Ernest Banda, who was the surety for Mphwiyo’s bail in the theft and money laundering charges amounting to K2.1 billion, asked High Court judge Esmie Chombo to be withdrawn as a surety.
Banda, according to court and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sources, told the judge in her chamber that he had information that Mphwiyo was planning to jump bail.
Ironically, Banda’s application was prepared by private practice lawyer Ralph Kasambara, who is one of the suspects in the case of attempting to murder Mphwiyo.
In the application, Banda asked the court to order a refund of his K2 million bail bond.
The judge ordered the withdrawal of Banda as a surety and ordered Mphwiyo to find a replacement.
Following Banda’s withdrawal, Mphwiyo risked re-arrest by the ACB if he did not find another surety. However, Mphwiyo instantly complied with bail conditions and found another surety who was immediately examined by ACB.
The ACB, according to its deputy director general Reyneck Matemba who was in the chamber, found the new surety satisfactory.
Matemba, when telephoned later, confirmed the developments, but declined to disclose particulars of the new surety, arguing it was for security reasons.
The court, which admitted the new surety, ordered refund of Banda’s K2 million bail bond.
Coincidentally, and according to ACB sources, Mphwiyo on Monday applied to the bureau to be allowed to travel to South Africa for medical aid.
The sources said the discharge of Banda and the allegations he made about Mphwiyo’s plan to jump bail were likely to throw spanners in the medical check-up application.
Matemba, who confirmed Mphwiyo’s application, said it was premature to discuss it because the bureau was yet to respond to it.
In November, government interdicted Mphwiyo as director of implementation, monitoring and evaluation in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).
Before this appointment, Mphwiyo was budget director until he was shot at night at the entrance of his residential house in Lilongwe on September 13 2013, an incident that led to the unravelling of plunder of public resources at Capital Hill.
Mphwiyo implicated Kasambara, a former minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs at the time of the incident, as one of the people that wanted to kill him.
In December last year, ACB allowed Mphwiyo to travel to South Africa for medical treatment.
