Parliament disowns ‘testimony’ on Veep

Parliament has disclaimed testimony reportedly linking Vice-President Khumbo Kachali to an alleged K5 billion payout to a firm owned by engineer Dean Lungu for services to government that Capital Hill had disputed for years.

Last week, media reports suggested that when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on December 12 2013 to testify on the ongoing cashgate hearings, secretary of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) Peter Chinoko mentioned Kachali’s name in connection with lobbying for the payout.

But in a December 16 2013 communication that we have seen, acting clerk of Parliament Roosevelt Gondwe writes: “I wish to categorically refute that the name of the Vice-President, Rt. Hon. Kachali, let alone the quoted text message, were mentioned at this particular meeting of PAC as per our records of the meeting.”

Lungu has denied receiving the payment from government as reportedly claimed by Chinoko.

Chinoko’s controversial testimony, including reportedly telling PAC at the hearing that President Joyce Banda was the kingpin in the plot to steal billions from government coffers to fund the governing People’s Party (PP), last week triggered a chain of reactions.

Information and Civic Education Minister Brown Mpinganjira announced that government would take Chinoko to court for his claims against the President.

Mpinganjira alleged that people who want to blackmail the President are threatening to embarrass and frustrate her efforts to fight corruption.

“This is a well-planned and calculated strategy by those that are trying to run away from the full force of the law to try and smear as many individuals as possible so that in the confusion that can ensue, they themselves might escape prosecution,” he said.

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) also said Chinoko’s assertions were baseless.

Chinoko’s reported testimony on the President also attracted a rebuke from the Catholic Church’s most powerful body in the country, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), which distanced itself from the claims.

ECM secretary general Father George Buleya said Chinoko’s testimony did not represent CCJP or the Catholic Church.

“We also wonder why PAC did not follow the right channel. They know the hierarchy in the Catholic Church. They were supposed to follow the protocol,” he said.

Buleya said the church made its position on the scandal clear in the pastoral letter it released recently.

When contacted for comment last week, Chinoko said he did not want to say more on the matter.