More impropriety at gaming parastatal

More details of alleged impropriety and fraud have emerged at the Malawi Gaming Board and Lotteries Authority (Magla) following a National Audit Office forensic audit.

The financial irregularities relate to operations of a bank account by some members of management, which was hitherto unknown to the chief executive officer Rachel Mijiga and the board of directors headed by Bernard Ndau.

The current Magla board then instituted a probe into how the account, opened in June 2019 at one of the country’s major commercial banks, was operated and transactions totalling over K400 million were reportedly made.

Following the allegations, the board sent on forced leave two members of management—director of finance and administration Henri Bakuwa and director of legal services/company secretary Ofwa Alide—to pave the way for the investigations.

However, a leaked document, which Bakuwa sent to Ndau dated October 7 2022, shows the dubious account, whose opening was duly endorsed by former board chairperson Billy Banda, also allegedly benefitted several people, including politicians.

According to Bakuwa’s letter, which was copied to the Team Leader of the audit exercise and chairperson of finance, administration and human resources committee, K43.4 million was drawn from the account and paid to a number of politicians to vote for the Magla Bill which Parliament passed in August this year.

But in a statement issued yesterday, Magla board said while it had taken note of an extract of an internal report that contains various assertions, allegations, misconceptions and wrongful conclusions drawn by some members of the public, there were no irregular payments made to any minister, politician or public official as alleged.

Magla, however, assured Malawians that there was nothing untoward in the allegations contained in the internal memo.

“The Audit Report by the Auditor General was impressively thorough and, save for the allegations that are subject to the disciplinary hearing, the Board is confident that all matters of concern were duly dealt with by the Auditor General.

“Mr Henry Bakuwa, provided his representations to the Auditor General both in writing and viva voce. The extract that has been leaked to the media is his written representations before the Auditor General.

“Following very thorough investigations, the Auditor General submitted his report which highlighted several issues of financial irregularities, mostly to do with staff benefits and other unjustified personal payments. Of note, the Auditor General’s report did not substantiate any of the allegations contained in the said internal report.

“Following the said Audit Report, the board instituted disciplinary hearings against Mr. Henry Bakuwa to specifically answer allegations bordering on financial matters,” further reads the statement.

The disciplinary hearing was scheduled for yesterday but Bakuwa reportedly tendered his resignation few days before the proceedings and is currently serving notice.

“He [Bakuwa] also bemoaned the inadequacy of the notice for the hearing. To avoid prejudicing the process, the board will not comment on the process of the hearing nor the merits of the charges,” reads the statement.

Ndau said the statement reflected Magla’s management understanding of the factual situation. “As a board, for the time being we reserve our comment until an appropriate time because there are ongoing disciplinary proceedings,” he said.