In a typical case of a fool is thirsty in the abundance of water as sung by Bob Marley, Treasury is struggling to finance expenditures while K2 billion from proceeds of crime remains idle.
The funds were confiscated from corruption and money launder i ng suspects and are idle in the Confiscation Fund due to lack of regulations to guide its use.
The Confiscation Fund was opened in November 2017 under the Financial Crimes Act and it receives deposits related to money that is under preservation or confiscation.
In a written response to a questionnaire, Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA ) spokesperson Masautso Ebere said as of December 20 this year the fund had slightly above K2 billion.
He said : “Currently, the account only receives deposits related to money under preservation or confiscation. The funds have never been withdrawn. The funds are deposited by law enforcement agencies or the FIA following freezing orders to banks or other reporting institutions.”
Asked when the regulations will be in place, Ebere said the professional drafting of the regulations was completed in October 2024, but will be ready next year after effecting some amendment s to the Financial Crimes Act during the next meeting of Parliament.
“This has been linked to t h e review of the Financial Crimes Act , which , among others, proposes the utilisation of the Confiscation Fund to ensure that the money in the Confiscation Fund Account should help facilitate asset recovery and investigation and prosecution of financial crimes,” he said.
In March this year, the fund held about K1.5 billion and the government promised that the regulations would be in place by June this year.
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs spokesperson Williams Banda insisted that FIA was better-placed to provide responses on the delay as the fund will be managed by them and other law-enforcing agencies.
But in earlier interviews, lawyers Alexius Kamangila and Kamudoni Nyasulu expressed worry with the delay in putting up regulations.
Kamangila argued that the Confiscation Fund is crucial in recovering State assets.
He said: “If someone has benefitted from crime or unjustly enriched themselves , then they should not benefit from such illegality and confiscation is the way to go. What is essential is to have working trust obligations.
“Once the State has taken that money, whether it is still fighting in court or not, the money should in these districts to register, considering that in Phase One, NRB was only providing digital identity verification,” he said.
NRB has not yet disclosed the specific locations or the duration of the registration, but it has reassured citizens that the process will be completed before the supplementary voter registration phase begins.
The bureau says this timing will allow sufficient time for adjudication, deduplication of records and the issuance of Unique Identification Numbers.
During the supplementary voter registration for Phase Two and Phase Three, NRB will continue providing digital identity verification services to citizens who previously registered with NRB during the last voter registration exercises.
This development comes amid growing concerns about the rising costs of the 2025 General Election, with MEC revealing that the re-opening of voter registration centres in districts covered in Phase One will push the total cost beyond the initial $187 million (about K324 billion) budget.
Earlier this month , MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja, a judge of the High Court of Malawi , confirmed to The Nation that this extension, ordered by a High Court ruling, would incur additional costs as voter registration is now set to be repeated in these areas.
