MEC, DPP clashover MPs’ cash

The National Audit Office’s preliminary findings that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) allowed 192 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates to contest the May 2009 Parliamentary Elections without paying nomination fees have put the poll body on a collision course with the ruling party as the two sides contradict each other on who footed the bill.

While both MEC and DPP have disputed the National Audit Office’s (NAO) findings, they have contradicted each other about who actually paid the nomination fees for the party’s 192 parliamentary candidates, with the electoral body saying it was Bineth Trust while the party says individuals and the party paid.

NAO’s audit exercise was conducted between November 15 2012 and August 21 2013 covering MEC’s financial transactions from July2008 to June2012.

During the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections (PPE), every parliamentary candidate was required to pay K100 000 ($222) nomination fees, which amounted to K19.2 million ($42 667) for DPP alone.

However, documents suggest that besides flouting its own electoral procedures by permitting the 192 candidates to contest the polls without paying nomination fees, MEC allegedly further paid K19.1 million ($42 444) to Bineth Trust as refunds for the candidates.

The financial deals are contained in a management letter ref no. SC/6/8/2012 from the Auditor General to MEC’s chief elections officer Willie Kalonga dated February 4 2015, which Weekend Nation has seen.

At the time of the financial transactions, founder of Bineth Trust was former president and DPP leader the late Bingu wa Mutharika. Bineth is derived from Bingu and Ethel, his late wife.

Electoral standing rules stipulate that any parliamentary candidate who scores above five percent of the total votes cast is eligible to a refund of the whole amount she or he paid.

MEC allegedly paid the money to Bineth Trust for the candidates who scored above five percent of the votes on June 12 2009 through Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) cheque number 000175.

But MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa, while confirming the existence of the preliminary report, denied suggestions that DPP candidates contested the polls without paying nomination fees.

He said: “This is not correct. Bineth Trust paid for the DPP candidates and that is why there was a refund of all candidates who reached a threshold of five percent of total valid votes.”

When pressed to explain why Bineth Trust was repaid nomination fees whose payment to MEC had no evidence, according to the preliminary NAO audit report, Mwafulirwa said his office supplied the auditors with evidence of payment after their query was raised and “it was not even raised in their later draft audit report”.

Weekend Nation has meanwhile established that NAO did not issue another draft audit report that cleared the issue as claimed by Mwafulirwa.

According to the audit report, out of the 192 DPP candidates, only Oliver ChizamsokaMulwafu, who contested in Chitipa East, was not refunded because he just managed to amass 365 votes, which represented 3.25 percent.

The audit, which was also partly extended to 2012/2013 financial transactions where it was deemed necessary, was conducted between November 15 2012 and August 21 2013.

According to the letter, upon examination of general receipts, bank deposit slips, bank statements and nomination forms for all candidates who contested for the parliamentary seats on May 19 2009, the audit team found no documentation to indicate that MEC got and banked the K19.2 million nomination fees from the 192 DPP contestants.

“There was no record at the [MEC] to indicate that nomination fees totalling K19 200 000 were received and banked and yet all the candidates contested for the seats contrary to the electoral standing rules which state that only those who had paid the nomination fees had to stand for the elections,” reads in part the letter headlined Management Letter on the Audit of Malawi Electoral Commission for the years ended 30th June 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

NAO observes that there was a risk that the commission’s regulations and guidelines were not followed by allowing the DPP candidates, whose party was also in government then, to contest for the polls without payment of nomination fees.

Writes NAO under its recommendation: “Management should always ensure that only those who have paid the nomination fees stand for elections.”

However, the letter, which was also copied to Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet and the Assistant Auditor General (Blantyre), says in its remarks management promised to investigate the eyebrow raising circumstances that “might have led to the anomaly and report back once we receive the final audit report from the Auditor General.”

“The audit noted that the payment of refunds to Bineth Trust was not justified because there was no evidence to show that the [DPP] candidates paid the nomination fees to the [MEC]… There is a risk that refunds were made for the candidates that did not pay their nomination fees,” writes NAO in the letter.

But in a separate interview last week, DPP secretary general EclainKudontoni denied that its candidates contested without paying nomination fees.

Said Kudontoni: “It is not true that our candidates contested the elections without paying nominations fees, they all paid. Some candidates paid for themselves while others failed to raise the amount and were supported by the party.”

When asked to explain the involvement of Bineth Trust, Kudontoni pushed the blame to MEC’s finance department’s “inefficiency”.

He further accused NAO of harbouring a vendetta against Bineth Trust.

“I think they [NAO] have personal grudges with Bineth because what I know is that all our candidates paid the nomination fees,” he said.

NAO spokesperson Lawrence Chinkhunda could not comment on the issue, saying “our position is that we cannot comment on the issues until we finalise our consultations.”

But in a press release about two weeks ago, MEC reiterated the position made by Mwafulirwa that DPP paid for all its candidates through Bineth Trust.

Reads the press release, signed by Willie Kalonga, its chief elections officer: “As a matter of fact, the analysis of the nomination fees from the districts assumed that all nomination fees were paid at the districts. However, candidates for the DPP were paid for by Bineth Trust as a lump sum and their nomination fees could not, therefore, have come from the districts.

“Related to this, the auditors also raised an issue on the refund of K19.1 million which MEC gave to Bineth Trust for the candidates who competed on the ticket of DPP. MEC clarified to them that the party paid K19.2 million for all its candidates through the Trust and that is why a refund for the candidates who qualified had to be made to the Trust.”

In a related development, the audit also faults MEC for failing to account for nomination fees for the May 19, 2009 presidential and parliamentary candidates amounting to K36.6 million ($8 133).

Some 1 171 candidates— eight were vying for presidency— contested in the polls from which MEC was expected to collect K120.3 million ($267 333) in nomination fees (K116.3 million for 1 163 parliamentary candidates and K4 million ($8 888) from eight presidential candidates) which were paid between February 6 and March 24, 2009.

However, an examination of the general receipts, bank deposit slips and bank statements for the election period disclosed that only K83.7 million ($186 000) was deposited into the commission’s account and recorded on the bank statement while the balance of K36.6 million could not be accounted for.