Attorney General (AG) Frank Mbeta on Wednesday finally faced a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament inquiry into the controversial K128 billion Amaryllis Hotel deal after two failed appearances and denied authorising the transaction.
His appearance before the inquiry in Lilongwe on Wednesday came hours after Public Service Pension Trust Fund’s suspended principal officer George Jim had told PAC on Tuesday night that the transaction was undertaken amid pressure from the highest levels of government, including former Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba.
During his session on Wednesday morning, Mbeta, appearing composed, said his office only provided conditional legal advice in reaction to a complaint the Malawi Law Society (MLS) lodged to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in November 2025 on the purchase of the hotel by the pension fund.
He said he instructed the bureau to stop the transaction pending investigations which later found no sufficient evidence of corruption.
Reading from his December 28 2025 letter advising the fund’s board to reassess highlighted risks before proceeding, Mbeta said: “I did not authorise the deal… My office cannot sit as a super-board over parastatals.”
He said he advised the board to proceed “in the best interests of the fund”.
Mbeta faulted the fund’s trustees, arguing that they had full discretion under the trust deed and the Pension Act. He said the trustees were responsible for engaging advisers, including EMJ Advisory which later admitted it is not a registered property valuer.
Further reading from his December 28 2025 letter to demonstrate that his advice was conditional, he said: “In view of the magnitude of the transaction in this matter, and indeed out of abundance of caution, and, in order to ensure that members’ savings are protected within the prudent investment principles and regulatory requirements, the board is advised to once again review the attendant risks and satisfy itself of the available mechanisms for the management or mitigation thereof. Once that is done, the board is advised to proceed with and conclude the transaction in the best interests of the Fund and its members.”
Mbeta told the committee that multiple independent assessments by FDH Bank plc in June 2023, Continental Asset Management in May 2024 and EMJ Advisory in November 2025 indicated that the business was viable, which could explain the board’s continued pursuance of the transaction.
Responding to claims that the board had previously rejected the deal, he said that in its investigation the ACB found no minutes of a board meeting on January 17 2024 to support such a claim.
Mbeta said his advice was consistent with concerns raised by the Registrar of Financial Institutions, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), who stated in a January 6 2026 letter that the transaction should not proceed until identified prudential risks were addressed.
“My advice was therefore consistent with the sector regulator. I did not override the Registrar; I mirrored his concerns,” he said.
Mbeta also told the inquiry that the office of the AG has no power to authorise commercial investments by a statutory body, saying that to suggest otherwise is a misunderstanding of the principle of separation of powers.
When pressed by legislators about testimony given the previous day by Jim that the fund allegedly received pressure from Zamba to speed up the transaction, he said the trust deed clearly states that the trustee is the final decision-maker.
During the inquiry, Blantyre City Chilomoni-Kabula-Nancholi member of Parliament Noel Lipipa (Democratic Progressive Party) earlier read out minutes from the March 6 2024 Mzuzu meeting that Zamba chaired which showed that the meeting resolved that the sale should be concluded urgently and that weekly reports be submitted because the matter had reached the highest office.
The AG also wondered if RBM obtained a court order to freeze funds linked to the transaction.
The central bank told the inquiry last Wednesday that it had quarantined K72.6 billion from the transaction. The regulator further fined each trustee K40 million for ignoring its order to reverse the transaction within seven days.
Mbeta observed that available information does not yet point to clear corruption or collusion, though he cautioned that the position could change depending on the findings of the ongoing parliamentary inquiry.
In a related development, Jim told the inquiry that “there was the invisible hand of external pressures. The letter was written under duress”.
He said he issued commitment letters on March 7 and March 18 2024 following directives linked to meetings chaired by Zamba.
Documents presented to the inquiry showed that a March 6 2024 meeting in Mzuzu attended by officials from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), including Chizaso Nyirongo and former State House Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga resolved that the sale be concluded urgently.
“We had no board, but we were still being called into meetings,” Jim said, referring to periods when the fund lacked a legally constituted board.
He maintained that, under the fund’s governance structure, the principal officer does not make binding decisions, which are reserved for trustees.
Jim also told MPs that legal opinions indicated there was no binding agreement with Yusuf Investments Limited, meaning the fund could have withdrawn.
The deal has sparked public outrage, particularly over how the price ballooned from an initial K47 billion valuation by Knight Frank in July 2023 to K128.75 billion.
PAC, chaired by Steven Malondera, continues to hear testimony as it seeks to establish whether the transaction followed proper governance processes and whether public funds were exposed to undue risk. Zamba is yet to appear before the committee while Kapondamgaga was interviewed last week.
