ACB slackness attributed to political interference

Despite the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigating and completing more cases in 2023/24 financial year than in any of the two preceding years, its investigation score has dropped to 27 percent.

Analysts have attributed the slump to political interference and acts of throwing spanners in ACB’s work.

According to 2024/25 budget document 5, which outlines the  government institutions successes and challenges in the outgoing fiscal year, the ACB investigated 561 cases of which 252 were completed.

“Out of the completed cases, 67 cases resulted in prosecutions representing 27 percent,” reads the document in part.

That represents a 12 percent drop from the 2022/23 financial year when the ACB investigated 457 cases of which 178 were completed.

The records show that 48 of the completed cases, 48 resulted in prosecutions, representing a 39 percent success rate.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, the anti-graft body’s investigated 141 cases of which 90 were completed and 31were prosecuted. The success rate stood at 35 percent.

However, the investigation success slump comes as Malawi consistently ranks in the bottom half of Transparency International’s annual global Corruption Perceptions Index.

The nation wrapped up 2023 at position 115 out of 180 countries. 

ACB principal public officer Manager Egrita Ndala attributed the drop to resource constraints.

“As you are aware, the 2023/2024 budget was prepared before the two devaluation.  This means that the budget could not achieve what had been envisaged as it achieved less with the increased cost of commodities like fuel and other materials.

“Apart from this the Bureau experienced no funding in two months of the financial year. This also affected operations,” she said in a response to our questionnaire yesterday.

There are “inadequate vehicles for operations, office space and lack of allocation resources for the National Anti-Corruption Strategy implementation as some key challenges it is facing.”

Governance analyst Robert Mkwezalamba, who is also chairperson for Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), said the drop could be a result of corruption suspects putting spanners in the investigations.

“Thieves have become more advanced and some are reportedly going as far as throwing around bribes which has led to credible witnesses pulling out of investigations,” he said.

Mkwezalamba said under those circumstances, there was a need for the ACB to strengthen its investigation capacity.

“I would like to believe that we need to support ACB to engage a pool of investigators to ensure that cases are investigated quickly. Sometimes delays lead to hiding or erasing of evidence,” he said.

On his part, the National Alliance Against Corruption chairperson Moses Mkandawire attributed the drop to suspected political interference in ACB investigations and lack of funding.

These past three years Treasury have seen increasing funding towards ACB from K6 billion in 2022, K7.8 billion in the outgoing fiscal plan and K8.6 billion in the proposed 2024/25 National Budget.

However, Mkandawire observed that ACB struggles to get the resources due to complex approval processes.

“The amount allocated to ACB is not the actual amount the bureau gets. The reason being that for ACB to get the resources, it goes through the Accountant General and there are a number of procedures.

“I would call them bottlenecks that lead to ACB not to access those kinds of resources. At the end of the day, you would be shocked to learn that what goes into the ACB pockets is 60 percent,” he explained.

Mkandawire further noted that ACB officers sometimes use personal resources to conduct investigations.

“It becomes a challenge, especially when it comes to serious offences that are complex in nature; cases about politically connected individuals. No wonder ACB is not performing to the expectations of Malawians,” he said.

In March alone, ACB is handling at least 28 cases in various courts nationwide,  a thing that needs a lot of financial resources.

Responding to our questionnaire, Minister of Information and Digitalisation Moses Kunkuyu described suspicions of political interference in ACB affairs as mere allegations.

“The ACB should come out clearly if their challenge in terms of investigation success has been finances. They know where to raise such issues.

“I don’t see anywhere where they have cited political interference as the reason for the drop in investigation success. I doubt the whole ACB with its current leadership as we all know it could easily bow to political interference,” he said.

“Let’s look at the resources that have been made available to them and the legal framework that they are operating since Dr Lazarus Chakwera became president. Let’s judge them based on all that. Remember, they are an independent body.”