Front PageNational News

Mphwiyo-MRA battle on

Mphwiyo during the meeting with PAC last week
Mphwiyo during the meeting with PAC last week

On the day he was shot, then Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo wrote the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) asking it to extend tax investigations to 15 more companies that were claiming payments from government, The Nation has established.

Last week, some members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament—currently conducting hearings on the Capital Hill cashgate—seemed to suggest during separate interviews with Weekend Nation that MRA commissioner general John Biziwick, in his testimony, told them that Mphwiyo was less than honest on the issue.

Biziwick reportedly told PAC that it was in fact his organisation that wrote Treasury on the matter not the other way round.

But a letter we have seen shows that while MRA had on August 16 2013 written the Secretary to the Treasury a “brief note on progress on tax investigation” into the owner of a certain company, it was the budget director who requested for a broader probe.

We have withheld the name of the person and the firm MRA was investigating and on whose basis the body sent a report to Treasury to avoid interfering with the ongoing probe into the attempted murder of Mphwiyo and cashgate.

Said Mphwiyo in a letter for the attention of Biziwick dated September 13, the day he was shot later in the night: “I acknowledge, with thanks, receipt of your letter Reference Number MRA/CG/EXCOR/13 dated 16th August 2013 transmitting progress on investigation on [name of company withheld by us]…

“I wish to commend you for the work you are doing and I assure you that no payment will be made to [the company] until the investigation is through and a clear position has been established as to who is owing who.

“It would also be appreciated if the same kind of investigation is extended to other companies who are claiming the government owes them money. The list of the companies is as follows….”

Mphwiyo, who has since been transferred to the Office of the President and Cabinet as director of budget analysis, then lists the names of the 15 firms that he wanted MRA to probe, but whose identities we have withheld because, again, they may be part of the ongoing investigations into cashgate and Mphwiyo’s attempted murder.

Mphwiyo’s shooting as he drove into his Area 43 home in Lilongwe from a night out with friends opened a can of worms, especially after President Joyce Banda linked the incident to what she said was the technocrat’s fight against unjustified payouts of government money in ways that smacked of fraud and corruption.

So far, more than 50 people from both the public and private sector have been arrested in connection with the pilferage of billions of kwacha as well as the attempted murder of Mphwiyo.

Last week, Mphwiyo appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to explain his role as budget director in cashgate.

Related Articles

Back to top button