Mphwiyo outwits PAC
Former Malawi budget director Paul Mphwiyo has blamed the massive plunder of tax payers’ money at Capital Hill on poor government systems.
Speaking publicly for the first time on the matter when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament this morning, Mphwiyo said lack of coordination between the Accountant General, Reserve Bank of Malawi and Ministry of Finance made it difficult for government to detect fraud.
“There is nothing to hide, all payment authorisation happened with Secretary to Treasury approval. [But] I noticed persistent differences in what RBM reported as expenditures and what the Ministry of Finance approved for spending.
“I noted anomalies in arrears government owed. When I came into office, I cross-checked and stopped payments pending further analysis,” he told the committee.
Mphwiyo said this action resulted in some suppliers to government putting pressure on him to make payments, some even showing up at his office.
He said fraud in government did not start with the discovery of K120 million in an accounts assistant’s bank account, saying: “Fraud has always been there.”
Quizzed on his alleged vast wealth, the shooting surviver said ACB queried him about his wealth and he fully disclosed his assets.
“Malawi is a country where success is not a common phenomenon, full of jealousy and envy. It’s possible for a young man like me to accumulate wealth,” said Mphwiyo, adding that at 37 he was capable of accumulating wealth through hard work.
Mphwiyo was quick to challenge PAC to access this information from ACB. He also advised PAC to ensure that all public servants declare assets.
Mphwiyo also dismissed allegations that he supplied President Joyce Banda with stashes of cash, describing the allegations as nonsense.
The former budget director has since refused to comment on whether his shooting was directly linked to the looting of public funds, saying he will only comment on the matter in court. He denied the assertions that his shooting was as a result of a deal that went sour.
For more in-depth analysis and reporting of Mphwiyo/PAC Hearing look out for THE NATION tomorrow.
I HAVE ALREADY SAID IT SOMEWHERE THAT THE SHOOTING OF MPHWIYO IS NOT A NATIONAL CRISIS; CASHGATE IS. WHY THEN ARE WE WASTING TIME ON THIS DECOY INSTEAD OF BUDGET HOLDERS AND THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. WHY IS THE ONLY HIGH LEVEL ARREST BASED ON THE SHOOTING OF ONE MAN AND NOT ON THE LOOTING OF NATIONAL RESOURCES.
Be honest mr m’phwiyo God save tell us the trueth
Be honest mr m’phwiyo God save you now tell us the trueth
Mr. Phwiyo you are a great liar, you are hiding something, God has saved you not to lie to Malawians but to reveal the truth. a Mphwiyo osalapa ndithu? munabwelera lokumbakumba inutu lero mkumanamanso? you are a devil!
Joice wakoyotu olo ndikumupatsa mwai oyankhula kumwambo wamandera anta. Ndipo ndamuona mmawa pa get ya fnb akuyenda ngati bakha ndati awa ndiye satithandiza. Mmayesa ndi a chairlady a Sadc,nanga bwanji sanalankhule,tazingokhutani ma banzi a ku Malawi Cashgate Bakery wo.tione ngati mukadya mutalowa mmanda.
The truth will come from another point. Amai amakumana nao ku SOUTH ndiye adauzana zonena. Lawyers are also bought . All arrests are cosmetic. Let us wait for a heavenly hand that has started this war on lootepoism, Mphwiyoism Bandits and the same hand will finish the battle.
May the Lord forgive you as you lie to the nation
Ok wise young man, so we Malawians are envious of your vast wealth which you have accumulated thru hard work! Just plz do tell us, what kind of business do you do o Paul Mphwiyo?
Isnt that what these jokers of PAC were supposed to ask this devil reincarnate to explain ?
The title suggests that Mphwiyo outwitted PAC, yet the article shows no evidence or detail of the same. Or is it because the PAC was asking irrelevant questions, such as how Mphwiyo accumulated his wealth. If they suspect him of stealing, why not just investigate him?
I totally agree with you, Freeman. Even more, the title reflects yet another example of the terrible journalism in this country. The man did not set out to ‘outwit’ anyone. He was summoned to answer questions, and he did so in the best way possible. But people wanted different answers, and there’s no way to force a man to lie just to make people happy.
This is what we normally call a kangaroo court – a hearing where the investigators want to find a person guilty of a particular thing, even if he did not do it. Consider the following:
1. Why the obsessive need to link the shooting with cashgate? This is actually born from anonymous (and therefore uncorroborated) sources, and the frenzy on online social networks; and worse still the gullibility of otherwise respectable media houses – how they rush to lap up anything posted on facebook as though it were factual news.
2. The very idea of summoning a person to quiz him about his shooting. A crime was committed against this individual. This is a fact, and he has the scars to show for it. And the country decides a parliamentary committee is best placed to find out why the crime happened? Seriously? And worse still, this committee attempts to link this crime to another one. Eish, words fail me.
3. Quizzing a person on his wealth – since when is it a crime for a person to be wealthy? Its no wonder ENVY is marked as one of the cardinal evils in our national anthem. And who decides that PAC has the powers to ask such questions. The man is is freaking top rungs in the Ministry of Finance. The perks he gets are not peanuts! And you will be surprised to find that there are other 37 year olds just as successful. They might not make a spectacle of their wealth, but they are in this very same country, silently building houses.
Unfortunately, we are a people that thrive on rumor. Hearsay is always more palatable than factual truth to Malawians.
Achebe, are you now designating the cashgate money “perks” ?
Achebe I admire your command of english but I find your arguments wanting and slanted:
1) By the phrase ” obsessive need to link the shooting to the cashgate” I think you are overlooking the simple adage that says “there is no smoke without fire”. You may not have considered that there are people out there, with information linking the two, but afraid to come in the open for security or other reasons hence opt to inject this informationa on the social media to envoke investigations. If we must really get to the bottom of the scandal we should not trash some sources and rever some. It works to our advantage to be open minded in these investigations.
2) The fact that Mphwiyo was shot doesn’t prove his innocence in the looting scandal. Mphwiyo can get justice for his shooting in a separate court case( after all the case is already underway) and we should not be precluded from interviewing him on the looting just on sympathy grounds. If information suggests he should be interviewed/ questioned then he has to be questioned period. And Achebe the coincidence of his shooting and the revelations of the looting is too tempting to be ignored.
3) To prevent the plunder of our already meagre resources we should not overlook “filthy wealthiness” for fear of being labelled envious or jelousy. And your argument seems to forget that not all wealth is “clean” or legally accumulated. The world is awash of examples that best explain my point. Ever heard of one Ben Madoff?
Yes there are lots of wealthy 37 year olds in this country but that doesnt mean we should not investigate one to whom evidence of foul play points. Let Mr Mphwiyo come clean by not only declaring his wealth now but also detailing how he generated the same.
What we are talking about here is financial crime of historical proportion, as far as Malawi is concerned, and myopic arguments and unnecessary sympathy are the last thing we need.
Zoona zokhazokha. That man who wrote the National Anthem was just a genius out of this world. He knew the real, barefoot, naked Malawian very well
Let’s wait n c….
In the first place PAC itself did not know what they wanted to achieve,they were totally unfocussed without a goal let alone objective.They went in there as if they were going to do a media interview most of them no facts no basis whatsoever as a result Mphwiyo outclassed them all.What a shame
Its high time we malawian start reacting to the cashgate thing!!! Current we on a campaign to create unconducive environment for thieves by burning them when they get caught. Now the cashgator are living within us we need to eleminate them we will be giving details and physical address for the cashgators. We need to unite to bring a change its high time poeple face the music for their in human action potibela misonkho pamene nzipatala mwathu tikusowa ndi panado yemwe.
Mphwiyo, even ur nem soundz lyk lie in the mouth of Malawians seeking the truth, God sent u back to end this mess & t c’mz ya want to hide poopa ma bullet ena, iwe2 ukuyenela kutiuza chilungamo2
I dont believe this young man….and indeed he is not giving thanks to God who saved him to tell malawians the truth….but i dont believe this president of ours she openly said to the public that she knows the people who shot mphwiyo and she is going to reveal them but how long does malawians have to wait for the president to do such a thing. there is no way mphwiyo could have told PAC the truth….he was told what to say when she visited him in the hospital in SA…..but truth will always come out
Half baked MPs, who converge to make allowances, fail to ask proper questions. There was just one question which Mphwiyo could have been asked, that is “why have you come here?”. Instead someone thinks this is a political ground and they were rightly franked and put where they belong, in the dust bin. A shameful country, shameful MPs and direction-less people