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Lawyer, ACB tussle over multimillion bill

The High Court in Lilongwe has terminated mediation in a case where private practice lawyer Chikumbutso Mkwamba dragged the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to court over unpaid legal fees.

The Lilongwe-based prosecuting lawyer is demanding over K50 million as remaining unpaid sum plus interests and collection costs for services he rendered to the graft-busting body.

Mkwamba confirmed the development on Thursday, saying the talks collapsed after the bureau offered to pay a lower fee.

“I can confirm that I have been informed by my lawyers that mediation has failed. We find the Bureau’s offer of K7 million out of the K50 735 117.00 unjustifiable and unacceptable,” he said.

Mkwamba insists that he had written the ACB on several occasions on the unpaid arrears to no response and says the non-payment of the fees has gravely affected his practice.

According to court documents, the then ACB boss, Justice Rezine Mzikamanda acknowledged owing Mkwamba in a letter dated January 29 2013, but attributed the non-payment to lack of funds.

“I regret that, for reasons beyond the Bureau’s control, it has not been possible to pay the fees as regularly as was done in the past. I assure you that I am vigorously pursuing all possible options to source funds for the settlement of our debts to you and to others,” reads Mzikamanda’s letter in part.

The ACB could not immediately comment on the failure of the mediation process, but Mzikamanda is on record to have admitted that the bureau was facing many financial challenges.

The lawyer was hired to prosecute several cases as ACB is heavily under-staffed and, among several cases in limbo over the development, include the trial of 14 senior officers at the Ministry of Agriculture who were arrested years ago for allegedly pocketing unjustified subsistence allowances.

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