ACB prosecution head moved to ministry

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director of legal and prosecution Chrispin Khunga has been redeployed to the Ministry of Justice as chief State advocate after serving 15 years at the graft-busting agency.

In an interview on Friday, he confirmed receiving a letter advising him about his redeployment and that he will report at the Ministry of Justice soon.

Khunga, the State’s lead lawyer in the ongoing corruption case against Vice-President Saulos Chilima, said: “I confirm that l have been seconded to the Ministry of Justice as Chief State Advocate and will report there very soon.”

He is among four lawyers prosecuting Chilima, who is accused of receiving an unspecified amount of money to influence the award of public contracts to Malawi-born United Kingdom-based businessperson Zuneth Sattar.

Khunga has served as the ACB’s director of legal and prosecution for seven years.

Reacting to the redelployment in an interview, Centre for Transparency and Accountability executive director Willie Kambwandira said while redeployment is a normal exercise, the timing in this case raises eyebrows, considering that Khunga is in the middle of a high profile case.

He said: “In the absence of proper explanation, one would only speculate that these are calculated efforts to frustrate the fight against corruption. If anything the bureau needs more prosecutors now than before.

“The deployment is obviously a big blow in the prosecution of high profile cases,” he said.

But Khunga said redeployment is a normal process in the public service.

“Since the ACB is a public institution, this happens, it’s not something new and lam fine with the secondment,” he said.

As ACB director of legal and prosecution, Khunga was responsible for management of prosecution, including assigning prosecutors to cases.

With his secondment it leaves only three lawyers forming part of a team prosecuting Chilima. The others are Victor Chiwala, Imran Saidi and Anafi Likwanya.

Apart from Chilima’s case, ACB is prosecuting several other Sattar-related cases, including that of ACB former director general Reyneck Matemba, former Inspector General of Police George Kainja, former chairperson for the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets John Suzi Banda, former minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa and Sattar’s business associate Ashok Kumar Nair among others.

The bureau is also prosecuting former minister of energy Newton Kambala, former Presidential Advisor Chris Chaima and Aford leader Enoch Chihana on suspicion that they wanted to influence the award of fuel contracts, among others.

The bureau has been pushing for recruitment of more prosecutors and investigators to function effectively.

Secondment is provided for in the Malawi Public Service Regulations.

In his legal opinion in 2020 former attorney general Chikosa Silungwe scoffed at secondments without following procedures.

He said any secondment must be demand driven from a host institution and there has to be an agreement with the sending institution.

But Office of the Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) spokesperson Robert Kalindiza, which has issued the redeployment instructions, described the move as normal.

Meanwhile, Chilima’s case is coming before court today and the State, through the Malawi Defence Force (MDF), are expected to submit to Justice Redson Kapindu defence council minutes and correspondence between MDF Commander and President Lazarus Chakwera as part of disclosures based on a court order on January 12 2024.