Cdedi wants senior govt officials probed
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) has asked the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate senior government officials on allegations of abuse of office and dubious allowance claims.
The call comes in relation to developments at the Accountant General’s (AG) office where junior public servants are accused of defrauding various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of K159 million.
In a statement issued on Friday, Cdedi executive director Sylvester Namiwa said the organisation is raising questions on the vulnerability of the Treasury such that an accountant can draw money from it on their own.
Reads the statement in part: “The above narrative raises serious questions about the safety of the public funds and the competence of those entrusted with the roles of controlling officers, and even the Treasury for allowing any officer to draw money from the public purse as it pleases them.”
And in an interview yesterday, Namiwa further said investigations by his office revealed that besides the junior officers, several senior officers in public offices have been drawing huge sums of allowances that could not be substantiated.
He said: “We have come to realise that the arrest of the junior officers is propaganda to divert public attention and shield the big fishes that approved such payments. We want the senior officers who approved and benefited from such payments investigated.”
Malawi Police Service Fiscal Section has conducted a series of arrests at the office of the Accountant General’s Department for alleged involvement in money laundering and corruption.
The suspects, now on court bail, are facing three counts of receiving property to show favour, corruption, and money laundering.
The count of receiving property to show favour reads that the suspects between September 2021 and June 2022, at Capital Hill in the city of Lilongwe, being employed in the public service as accountants, received money from different MDAs amounting to K159 568 000 through their respective bank accounts.
The charge of corruption reads that the suspects between September 2021 and June 2022, at Capital Hill in the city of Lilongwe, being employed in the public service as accountants, corruptly received K159 568 000 through their bank accounts to discharge duties from different MDAs.
The charge of money laundering states that the suspects, between September 2021 and June 2022, at Capital Hill, knowingly and having reasonable grounds to believe that money deposited in their bank accounts amounting to K159 568 000 from different MDAs, directly or indirectly, represented proceeds of a predicate offence, transferred the said money from the said account with the intent to conceal or disguise the illicit origin of the said money.
