A den of thieves in government

With the events of the past week, it is not difficult to paint the whole Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the same brush: a party of thieves.

It has transpired that President President Peter Mutharika holds an account where he is the sole signatory and K145 million was deposited from a company that was contracted to supply food rations to the Police.

The K145 million was illicit funds and that the government can describe it as a donation is a blatant disregard for people’s judgement and common sense.

Questions remain unanswered from the K145 million which Mutharika received from Pioneer Investments.

It is Mutharika and not the DPP which received the money because only he was the signatory to that particular account.

It is no coincidence and Pioneer Investments wrote a cheque with no explanation to be deposited into an account whose sole signatory is the president.

It is no coincidence that this same company, consumed by greed or perhaps acting on orders of those who wanted kickbacks, demanded interest on payment that they did not deserve.

If indeed the money went to the development of a headquarters for the party, what is the progress on this building? What happened to the K65 million, which he the president as a sole signatory to the account withdrew?

Before ACB openly owned the dossier and were more concerned with who leaked it, some within DPP attempted to own the money and the account, until State House realised there was no winning in this.

Like the terrible public relations spinners that they are, State House decided to heap the blame for who incidentally on the person who leaked the document, as if that would erase the fact that APM was a beneficiary of proceeds of crime.

At this point, it should not matter who leaked the document or how it found itself in the public domain. What should anger everyone is that the whole president of this nation received money that was stolen and there is nothing stopping ordinary Malawians from speculating that this was his cut from the whole dubious deal.

It is therefore surprising that APM is surprised that all this massive interest to be members of the party’s hierarchy is actually not for the benefit of building the party.

A politician vying for a seat in the ruling party, coming from out of the cold of the opposition—the likes of Ralph Jooma and Uladi Mussa have nothing to contribute to the DPP.

APM knows the people who use and will use their positions to demand contracts from the government. Malawians know them, and as we have come to discover through the leaked dossier from the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the president and the DPP is one of them.

The K145 million, the millions that DPP solicited from parastatal organisations, the admittance that the DPP is in the immoral habit of giving business to party cadres is an indication of just how deeply rooted corruption is in this government.

There is mud on APM’s face for all to see. Whoever leaked this dossier did the country a service which should be rewarded at the ballot box when people decide enough is enough.

Short of the ACB acting on all individuals involved in this scam, sadly there is not much that can be done on the APM himself.

If this country does not do what it did to former president Joyce Banda, the noble act of the leakage will have gone to waste and our children will not forgive this generation. n