DPP awaits trial date to start K700m police fraud case

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni says his office is ready to start prosecuting seven police officers suspected of defrauding government of over K740 million between July 2018 and June 2020.

The suspected syndicate was exposed seven months ago and the DPP, in an interview this week, indicated that his office is just waiting for the court to set date of commencement of trial.

Said Kayuni: “Well, the disclosures are ready and the matter awaits the court to give us the hearing date. We are eager and ready to process the matter before the honourable court.”

The case failed to start twice in September and November last year because senior resident magistrate Florence Msekandiana was not available.

An internal audit investigation conducted by police revealed that over 600 cheques were deposited in police welfare account at Area 30 as service charges from clients who had hired police officers and the funds were being withdrawn after being cleared by the bank.

The cheques were supposed to be deposited in Account Number 1, as government revenue.

The suspects who are on suspension are director of finance Tadius Samveka, head of audit Kingsley Mzuma, pay master Howkins Chadzandiyani, head of treasury Chimwemwe Mbwela, head in the advance section Enock Chulu, clerk in the advance section Suzgo Mwamulima and Ngalipa Chiramiramadzi a clerk in the treasury office.

The seven face charges ranging from conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent false accounting, forgery of stamps, forgery, theft by public servant and money laundering.

The audit findings showed that during the period of the alleged offences, the transactions were being authorised by two of the accused persons.

They also showed that purported deposit slips of cheques collected from B-Division had been deposited with Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), but the central bank disowned the stamps used and denied that such transactions took place.

Commenting on the matter, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) executive director Willy Kambwandira said there is need to speed up prosecution of such cases, involving suspected plunder of public funds.

He observed that delays to prosecute such cases may fuel abuse of public resources.

“Government needs to demonstrate commitment to fighting fraud, and as Csat we will make sure that recommendations and findings of audit reports are not ignored,” he said.