Benefits of being a governing party in Malawi
There is no doubt that it is highly rewarding to be a ruling party in Malawi. Bakili Muluzi, the first president in the new multiparty dispensation used to brag that politics is an investment. He knew what he was talking about. When you invest in an entity, you expect to reap from it. To date that is still the reasoning behind many people in Malawi who go into politics: to reap from it. Muluzi was acknowledging how sumptuously he was paid back and handsomely rewarded for his investment in politics during the 10 years he was in power. The latest icing on the cake for Muluzi’s philosophy is what the Director of Public Prosecutions has just done on the Bakili Muluzi K1.7 billion case.
Fast forward to the second Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rule from 2014—2020, the party can similarly breathe a huge sigh of relief that it was in power. DPP was in power at the right time to sweep its rot committed during its first tenure in office under the carpet. The party which has been the loudest in taunting the other administrations on corruption is actually one of the biggest beneficiaries of the same.
The infamous Cashgate was first noted in 2005 but exposed 13 years later, in September 2013. This is according to a forensic audit of the Government of Malawi by auditors, RSM Risk Assurance Services LLP of the United Kingdom (UK). The years 2009—2013 were characterised by unbridled theft of public funds at Capital Hill until the rot could no longer be concealed. Thieves started keeping their loot anywhere including in car boots. But as they say, some big things start with small people. A help hand in some location in Lilongwe spotted one such bounty in the boot of his master’s car and eureka he could not keep his mouth shut. The news then spread like wildfire. Thereafter one arrest led to another. As they say, the rest is history.
When the theft was exposed in September 2013, the Joyce Banda administration invited a UK-based forensic audit firm—Baker Tilly—to conduct an audit of the malfeasance. The firm picked six months—from April to September 2013—of the plunder. It uncovered that during these six months alone, civil servants and businesspersons had looted K24 billion from the public purse.
If K24 billion was plundered between April and September 2013, what was the damage from 2009 to 2014? This is the question that another forensic audit firm—RSM Risk Assurance Services LLP also of the UK—sought to answer. This second audit was funded by the German government.
What were its findings? The public purse had been gobbled a dizzying K236 billion. Yes, 10 times more than the money stolen during the six months in 2013 that Baker Tilly examined. The RSM report implicated seven Cabinet ministers in the DPP administration.
The report, released in 2016 was supposed to be tabled in Parliament. But it went nowhere. Why? DPP was in power.
When loud-mouthed Rumphi East legislator Kamlepo Kalua became vocal about the seven ministers implicated in the report, the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) was ordered to swoop on him, obviously to silence and punish him for trying to expose the dirt. After that incident, Kamlepo has never talked about the loot again. In 2020, towards the court-sanctioned presidential elections, Peter Mutharika even rewarded Kamlepo with a Cabinet portfolio.
Three years after the Tonse Alliance took over the reins of power, it has done nothing on the matter, a development that should be a huge relief for the seven former Cabinet ministers implicated in the K236 billion RSM forensic audit report. Most likely DPP functionaries incinerated most of the evidence for the K236 billion looting. How could they keep documentary evidence that could sooner than later hit them where it hurts most? And so we can safely conclude the matter is now water under the bridge. A dizzying K236 billion gone and never to be probed again! That is how beneficial it is to be a ruling party in Malawi. In this country you can ransack the public purse with wanton abandon and still get away with it. You are in control.
The Tonse Alliance administration has had its own teething problems on busting graft. It started well in 2020 arresting several individuals in what is known as the K5 billion Cement-gate case. Then boom! On the scene came Zuneth Sattar, the UK-based businessman who in 2020 won multiple government contracts worth over $150 million, now under investigation. With Sattar everything against graft just collapsed like the Berlin War did on November 9 1989. The understanding is that the Tonse administration came with guns blazing not to fight corruption but to bring down the very instruments and weaponry it had assembled to bust graft. At best we can say this regime has been pulling wool over our eyes on its efforts to fight corruption. My contention is that like its predecessor, it is one of the biggest beneficiaries of being a ruling party. That is why I totally agree with Muluzi that running for a political office in Malawi and getting into government is a humongous and lucrative investment.
