Mphwiyo kept passport against bail conditions
Details have emerged that former budget director Paul Mphwiyo kept his passport for eight years contrary to his bail conditions in a case he was answering.
Mphwiyo, who is reported missing, is accused alongside others of defrauding the State of K2.4 billion in a Cashgate case which started in 2014.
Among his bail conditions, Mphwiyo was asked to surrender his travelling documents to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), seek permission to travel outside the country and report to the bureau every month.
In 2015 the court allowed Mphwiyo to travel to South Africa on medical grounds on condition that he surrenders the passport to ACB upon his return.
Our findings show that Mphwiyo never surrendered the passport to ACB.
In a written response, ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala confirmed that the bureau, since 2015, has not been in possession of the passport.
Said Ndala: “The passport was released to Mr. Paul Mphwiyo pursuant to a court order dated 13th July 2015 to allow him travel to South Africa for medical issues. The bureau was simply complying with a court order”.
Ndala could not explain why the bureau never enforced the bail condition to have the passport back.
Weighing on the matter, lawyer John Gift Mwakhwawa said the ACB conduct amounts to negligence of duty.
“It was their duty to ensure that upon return he surrenders the passport. They are the arresting and prosecuting authority. The court can only be moved by the ACB, the court cannot move itself in terms of surrendering of the passport. That was the responsibility of the ACB and they have abdicated their duty. The suspect also has a duty otherwise if they do not return the passport they are in breach of bail conditions.
“That is where the court order allowed him to travel and surrender the passport. But if the court order did not ask for surrender of the passport upon return then one would have an arguable case…but then again the ACB would have been responsible to ensure that the condition to allow him travel is that upon return he should immediately surrender the passport. So, in any event, however, the order may have been drafted the ball lies squarely on ACB doors,” he argued.
In 2015 High Court judge Charles Mkandawire ordered that Mphwiyo should travel to South Africa for medical attention on July 19 and return by August 2 the same year.
The other conditions were that Mphwiyo should surrender a copy of air ticket to the ACB and upon arrival at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa should surrender his passport to the Malawi High Commission. When he returns, he was to hand back the passport.
Prior to this order, Mphwiyo had on several occasions been denied permission to travel after ACB received reports that he planned to jump bail.
He is on a K10 million bond, bonded his Area 43 house and four cash sureties worth K2 million each.
The ACB has also stated that Mphwiyo last reported to the bureau on June 19 as part of the bail condition.
Ndala said: “The bail reporting records show that Mr. Mphwiyo last reported for bail on 19th June 2023. If by the date of next reporting he does not show up, the bureau will apply to court for revocation of bail.”
According to Mwakhwawa, this amounts to jumping bail.
“Missing a day amounts to jumping bail, there is no two ways about it,” he observed.
National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said they are still hunting for Mphwiyo after his wife reported on June 26 2023 that he was missing.
However, there are suggestions that Mphwiyo may have crossed the borders and Kalaya said these suggestions are subject of their investigations.
He said their preliminary findings based on CCTV trail, Mphwiyo left Lilongwe through Kamuzu International Airport to Chileka International Airport where he checked out and was last seen leaving Ryalls Hotel.
Mphwiyo and others are expected to face judgement in the High Court at a date yet to be set for the Cashgate case which concluded last year.
While the ACB, initially, prosecuted the matter it was moved to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
In an interview the DPP, Masauko Chamkakala, said they will figure out what to do once there is an official report on Mphwiyo’s missing.
Chamkakala said: “There is no official report yet. We will figure out the course of action once we get official information on this allegation”.
Mphwiyo, apart from being a Cashgate suspect, was shot at his house in 2013 in a case the former attorney general Ralph Kasambara, with others, were convicted of attempted murder.
