JB says suspicious transactions in IFMIS deleted

Early results of investigations into the looting of government resources show that some suspicious transactions were made and deleted from the government payment platform IFMIS, President Joyce Banda told opposition leaders at Kamuzu Palace on Thursday.

The President’s statement comes against the background of the plunder of at least K20 billion (US$5.4 million) that has transfixed a nation already struggling to access basic services such as medicines.

President Banda said international forensic experts have identified the people involved in the fraudulent transactions.

“It is pleasing to note that retrieved information gives details of the persons involved in the facilitation of the transactions, the amounts involved and the beneficiaries.

“This information has been passed on to the law enforcement agencies to analyse and come up with a firm basis for further action. On some of the transactions, the Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB] has already filed charges in the magistrate’s courts,” she said.

Banda assured the leaders that she will not shield anyone who participated in the pillage.

“As a matter of showing seriousness on the matter and that I am not ready to side with anyone, I have ordered for the redeployment of staff within the civil service to pave way for the investigations.

“Government has also engaged the systems supplier to collate all suspicious transactions and review the systems gaps and plug them,” she said.

The President disclosed that she has ordered Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Fahad Assani to start consultations on the review of the Corrupt Practices Act and explore the possibility of establishing an Anti-Corruption Court in the country.

The chain of events that have cast light on the leaky government coffers were set in motion on September 13 2013 when assailants attacked Treasury budget director Paul Mphwiyo.

Initial indications showed that Mphwiyo was a victim of his crusade against rampant corruption in the public service, an assertion that gained more currency after the President supported the notion.

However, information floating in the public domain and the social media creates a more complicated portrait of the issue, making it difficult to understand the role the budget director played in the plunder.

The looting has outraged the country’s traditional donors such as Norway who last week suspended budgetary support to Malawi.