Revelations that Malawi Government disbursed K160 million to 10 political parties to facilitate their attendance of the State funeral of former Vice-President Saulos Chilima have raised eyebrows with governance advocates demanding accountability.
From a budget of K1.5 billion for the State funeral, as per the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Plane Crash that killed Chilima and eight others on June 10 2024, it has emerged that about K160 million or 11 percent was given to political parties, including Malawi Congress Party (MCP), UTM Party and United Democratic Front (UDF).
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs funded the parties based on their budgets, but to date, six months later, there has not been any expenditure report made public to account for the use of the funds.
UTM Party, which Chilima led, received K61 million while its then co-key partner in Tonse Alliance, MCP, was given K30 million. The list shows that People’s Party (PP) and UDF were given K15 million each, Alliance for Democracy K12 million, Freedom Party K9 million while Umodzi Party and Petra got K5 million each. People’s Progressive Movement got K4 million and Mafunde received K3.9 million.
However, PP yesterday said it received K9.5 million, not K15 million as stated.
The UDF is said to have benefitted because the late Patricia Dzimbiri, who was among the victims, was “previously first lady and wife to former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi.
But while the statement indicated that the money was meant to benefit all Malawians to pay their last respects to Chilima, except for the UDF, the beneficiary parties are mostly those that were affiliated to the Tonse Alliance.
At the time of her death, Dzimbiri was an adviser to Chilima and a UTM Party member.
In a written response yesterday, former UDF secretary general Kandi Padambo confirmed that the party received K15 million, but said the Muluzi family also came in to beef up the resources.
He said: “The Muluzi family was requested and assisted the party with a substantial amount, particularly for the State funeral of the late Madame Shanil Muluzi, for transportation and food for supporters who had travelled for the customary vigil and burial of the former first lady.”
Padambo added that other expenses were transport and food for party members who attended the funeral services for Chilima both in Lilongwe and Ntcheu.
Petra, which quit the Tonse Alliance way before the plane accident, received K5 million but party president Kamuzu Chibambo, who is related to Chilima’s widow Mary, said he used personal resources during the period and referred us to his secretary general Boniface Nyenyezi.
Nyenyezi said the funds were used for transport, food and accommodation for members across the regions who travelled to Ntcheu for Chilima’s burial.
In separate interviews, UTM, Aford, Mafunde and Umodzi Party all confirmed to have received the funds and said they had expenditure reports which can be shared on request.
But Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation executive director Michael Kaiyatsa said it was highly irresponsible for government to fund political parties to attend State funerals, saying this amounts to abuse of taxpayers’ funds.
He said: “Spending K1.5 billion of public funds on State funerals, especially when part of it goes to political parties for attending the funerals, is both unethical and irresponsible.
“The parties should have used their own funds to attend the funerals, not relying on the government to subsidise them.”
In a separate interview, Centre for Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said there is need for a detailed report to be presented publicly on how government spent these funds.
He said: “The expenditure obviously was on a very higher side and not justifiable, we expected government to provide a detailed expenditure report in terms of how they spent K 1.5 billion.
“The delay in providing the detailed expenditure report raises serious accountability questions”.
Both Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu, the official government spokesperson, and Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo, who were in the committee responsible for all funeral arrangements, have not responded to our questionnaires.
The commission, which was chaired by High Court of Malawi Judge Jabbar Alide, presented its findings in Lilongwe on Saturday evening.
In its presentation, the commission said the disbursement to the targeted political parties was “to accord Malawians from all walks of life” an opportunity to bid farewell to Chilima who was the country’s vice-president at the time of his death.
Reads the report: “Government being aware that the late vice-president Saulos Chilima was leading an alliance of several political parties that had partnered the Malawi Congress Party [MCP], provided support to individual parties to allow their membership attend the funeral of the former vice-president.”
Chilima and eight others died in a military plane crash.
The inquiry ruled out foul play.
However, in August, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation released an interim report which highlighted several technical deficiencies of the crashed Malawi Defence Force plane.
