Assani announces countrywide cash-gate sweep

Malawi Government, armed with the Corrupt Practices Act and Money Laundering Act, will soon start a countrywide profiling of all property owned by civil servants.

The exercise will also bring on board the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) Act to help government ascertain which property owned by civil servants may have been from proceeds of either corruption, money laundering or tax evasion.

The development is to buttress government efforts to present an image of “something being done” in the wake of massive looting of public funds by public servants at Capital Hill.

In an exclusive interview on Thursday, Justice Minister Fahad Assani confirmed that the plans are to ensure that “every penny stolen from public coffers is recovered”.

He said the Registrar of Companies will also be brought on board to ensure civil servants do not start changing registration of their suspicious business interests.

The efforts come amid arrests by various law enforcement agencies of people being found with huge sums of cash whose sources they cannot explain. Others are suspected to have facilitated payment or were paid billions without delivering any goods or services to government.

Assani has meanwhile warned Malawians to desist from buying real property and vehicles “from civil servants you suspect cannot afford that kind of property.”

“Because if they buy and it is later discovered that that house or vehicle was out of stolen money, then they stand to lose out,” said Assani.

According to him, “civil servants who will claim that their property is out of businesses they do, then MRA will have to come in to prove that they have been paying tax.”

“If they did not, then MRA will have to auction such property to recover what is due to Malawians,” added the Justice Minister.

Assani said President Joyce Banda “is looking at a possibility of 100 percent recovery and forfeiture of all property coming as a result of this looting.”

In the same interview Assani, who has been tasked with re-looking into the Corrupt Practices Act to give it more teeth, also said the President has assured him “that she will not protect anybody”.

“She says even members of her family, if they are found to be part of the problem, they have to be punished,” said Assani.

The former Director of Public Prosecutions added: “We want to have well-investigated cases where we are likely to secure convictions and be able to recover all looted funds.”

Opposition parties recently told the press that they are eagerly awaiting answers on the looting which the Financial Intelligence Unit suspects has cost the taxpayer in the regions of about K20 billion.

Currently, less than 10 people have been arrested on suspicion of being found with unexplained millions of kwacha or discovered to have received billions of kwacha from government without delivering a single service.

Vice-President Khumbo Kachali is expected to present a comprehensive report on how the JB administration is handling the cash-gate scandal when Parliament meets in Lilongwe on Monday October 21, 2013.

President Banda summoned an early meeting of Parliament to partly discuss the mess in public finance management system which has since led to the suspension of the computer aided accounting system Integrated Financial Management information System (Ifmis) in government financial transactions.

Meanwhile, President Banda has announced plans to establish an anti-corruption court to speed up cases of theft of government resources being experienced currently.

This would be another addition to special courts established in Malawi of recent to deal with judicial matters which are commercial and juvenile in nature, separate from the standard magistrate and high courts.

Banda met with opposition political party leaders in Lilongwe on Thursday to brief them on progress various agencies have made to seal loopholes in the Capital Hill cash-gate scandal.

“I have also asked the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to start consultations on reviewing the Anti-corruption Act and the possibility of establishing an anti-corruption court. I want these consultations to start in his office in collaboration with the Anti-Corruption Bureau and other stakeholders,” she said.

“My government will not shield anyone engaged in the current malpractice. Already there has been re-deployment of staff within the civil service to pave way for the investigation,” she said.

Government has also set up a forensic unit within ACB to deal with such cases, according to director Rezine Mzikamanda.

The ACB has also frozen some 33 bank accounts suspected to have been conduits of suspect cash.

Speaking after the meeting, Friday Jumbe of New Labour Party said: “There will be no more blame game between the political parties. This problem has been mushrooming and as political parties, we agree it can’t go on anymore.”

UDF secretary general Kandi Padambo said blaming past administrations would be unfair because civil servants involved in this scam have served several governments including the current one.

Since the shooting of budget director Paul Mphwiyo last month and the arrests of people in connection with looting of money at Capital Hill, business captains and civil society leaders as well as donor community,who contribute 40 percent to the budget, have warned the President to put her house in order.

The UK has sent forensic auditors to help find answers to the scam.

Meanwhile the ACB on Thursday arrested the chief tourism officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Leonard Kalonga, for allegedly defrauding government.

ACB senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala said the bureau’s investigations found that Kalonga had corruptly employed the services of various people owning companies and defrauded the Malawi Government of large sums of money.

Ndala said the suspect will be charged with corrupt use of official powers contrary to Section 25 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act and obtaining money by false pretences contrary to Section 319 of the Penal Code.

—Additional reporting by Suzgo Khunga and Rex Chikoko.