AG recoups over K200bn

The office of Attorney General has during the past six months saved over K200 billion from an estimated K2 trillion compensation claims companies and individual businesspersons have been making against government over the years.

Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda said, in an interview on Thursday, that although the process was demanding, his office was still challenging several other compensation claims and would not tire out until “every penny illegally claimed is challenged”.

He said: “So far, we have saved in excess of K200 billion. The highest is a land claim of K131 billion; then there is one of about K30 billion and also a K6 billion claim which we successfully challenged. The rest are smaller amounts but, of course, several of them.”

The K131 billion land case is one of the top five cases the AG is fighting as part of the ongoing battle to reverse the over K2 trillion in claims against government.

The amount was supposed to be paid to Ramchand Hashmatrail, who sued government claiming the one-party Malawi Congress Party (MCP) regime wrongly forfeited his land in Blantyre City in 1969. The High Court, through a default judgement, awarded him the amount in March 2020.

However, in February this year the High Court in Blantyre set aside the payment after the AG filed an application for stay of execution of the judgement. 

Chakaka-Nyirenda also blocked about K30 billion payment to Savenda Management Services after government cancelled a procurement deal of 300 ambulances. 

The AG observed that while some claims were genuine, most businesspersons were taking advantage to defraud government by submitting dubious and exaggerated compensation claims.

“They know their claims are not genuine but proceed to make exaggerated claims. But we are in court each and every day trying to fight such bogus claims.

“Sometimes one would be entitled to K100 million but instead will claim K10 billion. Most of these claims government has been paying are very avoidable. If you sleep, they take advantage of the situation,” he said.

The AG expressed concern that some claims involved donor-funded projects, resulting in government paying for breach of contracts.

“This shows lack of seriousness, pure negligence, sabotage or incompetence on the part of government,” he said.

Governance, rule of law and institutional development expert Clemence Alfazema, hailed the AG for standing up to challenge questionable claims against government.

However, Alfazema observed that technical incompetences and kickbacks may have contributed to huge amounts of money being claimed by companies and individuals.

“When technical officers examine a case and decide they cannot win and fail to challenge it, it basically means expertise in the legal defence system is lacking.

“Of course, sometimes expertise could be there but officers get compromised. They are enticed to quickly settle the claims and in return get kickbacks from the claimants. But saving K200 billion that’s the way we should go and ensure there is protection of public funds at all cost,” he said.

Early this year, Chakaka-Nyirenda said his office had commenced processes to seize property owned by private firms and contractors who have, over the years been engaging in dubious business deals with government ministries, departments and agencies.

He said he was targeting to recover about K50 billion every quarter from the suspension of business deals.

As of last December, compensation claims against government had gone up to about K2 trillion, some of them spanning from as long ago as 1995, with about 2 800 claimants suing government.