Politicians exert pressure on ACB
Politicians from both governing and opposition parties are exerting pressure on the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to either drop or fast-track some ongoing corruption cases and investigations, it has emerged.
ACB director Martha Chizuma made the revelation during the graft-busting agency’s meeting with Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) at her office in Lilongwe yesterday.
The meeting between Cdedi and ACB followed a letter Cdedi wrote the bureau questioning its decision to close a case against State House. The case followed allegations that State House paid inflated hotel bills for its international guests accommodated at Crossroads Hotel last year.
In an interview yesterday, Chizuma confirmed telling Cdedi that while she never received pressure from President Lazarus Chakwera, she has received pressure from political parties both in government and opposition.
She said some officials from opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were on her neck for allegedly persecuting their former president and the party’s leader Peter Mutharika who is under investigation over use of his taxpayer identification number while serving as the country’s President.
Chizuma said that on the other hand, some senior officials from Malawi Congress Party (MCP), a lead partner in the nine-political party Tonse Alliance administration, were accusing her of treating Mutharika with kid gloves.
She said: “I have received pressure from all corners. UDF [United Democratic Front] supporters have also raised their own issues on the case involving former president Bakili Muluzi, so have Aford [Alliance for Democracy] supporters. This simply confirms that we do not take sides and we will not.”
The ACB chief said what gives her determination is the fact that the President has always encouraged her to work independently and professionally in the best interest of the nation.
She said: “The tone from the appointing authority is encouraging. My fidelity is to God, the law, people of Malawi and indeed the appointing authority.
“If there will be a change of tune from the appointing authority which affects my independence, I will surely reconsider my position.”
During the meeting with Cdedi, Chizuma asked the group to submit a formal complaint in case it has more evidence in relation to the closed case on inflated hotel bills by State House.
In an interview after the meeting, Cdedi executive director Slyvester Namiwa said they will file a fresh complaint because they are still not satisfied with the way ACB has handled the issue.
He said: “We are glad that the ACB invited us for a meeting following our concerns raised in the letter dated November 3 2021. The ACB said from the complaint received [inflated bills], they did not find any wrongdoing. But we have evidence that bills were inflated.
“Secondly, there was change of statements that the other payment did not come from Mr. Elias Miguel as an individual, but MCP as a party. We find something missing in all this and we shall present our evidence just like we did in the letter that we wrote to have the bureau do a fresh investigation.”
Namiwa said beyond the State House probe, Cdedi also wanted an assurance from the ACB chief that she was not working under pressure.
He said: “We got the assurance that she is working independently and we take her word seriously. Otherwise, we all wish to have an independent ACB, especially now that the institution is dealing with cases involving the ruling elites.”
Earlier this month, ACB cleared State House of wrongdoing on allegations that it accommodated some foreign guests at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe at an inflated rate.
In the statement announcing conclusion of the investigation, ACB said the bureau had since closed the case due to lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
Reads the statement in part: “The K12 500 000 payment was made by State House directly to Crossroads Hotel towards the accommodation costs of the guests. There was no corruption in the payments that were made to Crossroads Hotel as alleged in the complaint.”
The investigation followed reports that emerged in October last year that State House hosted ghost visitors at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe in a bid to defraud the public purse.
Invoices that circulated on social media at the time showed that State House paid the hotel over K50 million in bills.
But Crossroads Hotel told The Nation at the time that it had received a K12.5 million cheque from State House.
One of the directors at Crossroads Hotel, Sameer Sacraine, said that four international guests, whose nationalities he could not disclose, were booked at their hotel for over a month. He said the four were booked by Elias.
