PAC to summon AG on Bingu wealth

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) plans to summon Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale to provide his office’s side of the story on the probe into the wealth of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika.

The committee has also resolved to summon directors of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) and the Auditor General after they personally failed to appear before it some two weeks ago, according to chairperson Alekeni Menyani.

The directors of ACB and FIA delegated their subordinates to provide updates on progress made into the investigations, but committee members described their updates as unsatisfactory.

Initially, the committee indicated that it had resolved to open a public inquiry on Bingu’s estate as was the case with the Zambia maize purchase issue after questions from the committee yielded little results.

But in an interview yesterday, Menyani said his committee had resolved to summon the directors, including the Attorney General, before a public inquiry could be commenced.

He said: “It was strange and not proper that all the directors were not available. So, a resolution was made that before going into public inquiry, all of them should be summoned, including the Attorney General.

“The committee felt there was a lot of information it would have benefitted from even before starting the public inquiry which did not come forwarded from the subordinates that were sent by their principals.”

Menyani observed that the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs had no representation at the meeting despite the Attorney General’s office working on the matter.

“The Attorney General’s office itself started these matters [back in 2012] and was in court so we want to appreciate what was obtained in there and at what level was the matter stopped,” he said.

Earlier this month, ACB director of investigations Dan Mponda, representing his boss Lucas Kondowe who was out of the country, told the committee that since 2014 when investigations were opened, the focus had been on local assets and their scope of probe did not extend to foreign jurisdictions.

But Menyani said they wanted Kondowe to confirm to the committee the bureau’s stand and whether they had failed the investigations.

Menyani said once the committee gets a clear position from ACB, they will have a proper direction before embarking on their proposed public inquiry.

He said: “So, basically the committee is saying even if we were to begin the public inquiry, where will we start from because these officials need to conclusively tell us whether they failed or at what stage are they with the matter.”

PAC was last year tasked by Parliament to conduct an inquiry on the issue to establish the truth that during his eight years in office the former president allegedly amassed wealth estimated at K61 billion both locally and abroad after declaring to the Speaker of Parliament in 2004 that his assets were worth K150 million.

The wealth was revealed in 2012 after former president Joyce Banda’s administration engaged property valuer YMW Property Investment Limited to value Bingu’s deceased estate.

The amount raised eyebrows as most people alleged that the former leader siphoned taxpayers’ money and deposited it abroad. n