Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Peter Mutharika says the meeting of Parliament starting this afternoon will only be useful if government names officials behind the “juniors” being arrested in the ongoing probe into the Capital Hill cash-gate scandal.
Speaking during a press conference on the eve of the brought-forward meeting of Parliament in Lilongwe, Mutharika called for firm debate on the cash-gate scandal, saying lack of debate will not find solutions to the problem.
He said: “The people being arrested are juniors. Who ordered the payments? What’s the objective of this meeting? We haven’t been told.”
Mutharika’s observations come against a background of an announcement that Vice-President Khumbo Kachali will present a “comprehensive report” on what happened and what government is doing to get to the bottom of the cash-gate payments.
Two weeks ago, President Joyce Banda told the nation that the problems leading to the recent revelations started years ago at the introduction of the government computer accounting system, the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis).
But opposition parties argue that all of the recent revelations are from very new transactions.
“Let independent people investigate and let’s not block the process. Let’s have independent observers and let the truth come out and let’s deal with the truth when it comes,” said Mutharika.
He hoped that the British forensic auditors currently in the country would do a better job to clean the mess.
“If they want to go back to have a complete audit, let that be but I know they are trying to shift that to DPP and the so-called K61 billion, let them do that,” he said.
Valuers have put the worth of Mutharika’s brother, former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika at K61 billion, but the DPP leader says “that is a complete hoax”.
The press conference in Lilongwe yesterday was at the close of a DPP tour of the Northern Region and parts of the Central Region where Mutharika held 24 rallies.
