Chisoni removed from loans board fraud case

The State has removed former Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board executive director the late Chris Chisoni from the charge sheet in a case he was accused of abusing K5.1 million alongside two others.

Chisoni was charged alongside the Loans Board’s former finance and administration manager Enos Ganunga and loans manager Chimwemwe Kaphagawani. The trio was arrested in August last year over abuse of finances at the board.

The trio was answering charges of money laundering, abuse of office and theft by servant.

They are suspected to have duped the board K5.1 million claimed as subsistence allowances and fuel refunds for a meeting that never took place, but funds were withdrawn from the board’s account.

When the Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court convened yesterday to hear testimonies from State witnesses, senior State advocate Pirirani Masanjala told the court that Chisoni, who was the first suspect in the case, was removed from the charge sheet following his death on September 24.

 However, when defence asked to have his bail money returned, Masanjala objected to the submission.

He said: “The matter has not been concluded so the bail money cannot be claimed at this stage.”

Masanjala said there have been incidents where the court refused to give back bail money and he cited the case against Cashgate convict Oswald Lutepo.

One of the defence lawyers, Oscar Taulo argued that since the deceased has been discharged, the money that he deposited with the court as bail bond should be paid back to his widow.

He said the deceased did not violate any of the bail conditions and it was only proper that the money be given back.

Said Taulo: “I have an opportunity to go through the Lutepo case. The case of Lutepo is different from the present case. The money that Lutepo was asking back was sureties’ money. He was also convicted and sentenced while Chisoni was just a suspect.”

Senior resident magistrate Florence Msekandiana reserved her ruling to December 7 2021.

The State proceeded to parade three witnesses who included the board’s executive assistant Ethel Mgunda, registrar of the then Kamuzu College of Nursing Kambwiri and registrar of Nalikule College of Education John Kang’oma.

Mgunda told the court that the said meeting did not take place and Kambwiri and Kang’oma—whose names appeared on the allowance forms for the meeting—denied attending the meeting or receiving subsistence allowances worth K85 000 each.

The witnesses also told the court the signatures on the documents were not theirs. They believed the documents were fake.