Africa-Press – Malawi. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who faced questions over the cashgate scandal having served as President Joyce Banda adviser is meeting his advisee President Lazarus Chakwera. Blair runs a Delivery Unit at State House.
Blair has arrived in the country this morning at around 5am. Acting Presidential Press Secretary Anthony Kasunda has confirmed that Blair will meet President Lazarus at State House.
Blair is reportedly in the country for a private visit but Chakwera, after hearing that the former British Prime Minister has arrived, asked for the two to meet.
Last year, Chakwera hired the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) to set up a new project at State House to support the Government of Malawi to “strengthen its delivery and implementation mechanisms”.
State House confirmed that experts from TBI were expected to set up a delivery unit aimed at diagnosing deficiencies in the government machinery and addressing them in order to improve competency of governance institutions.
Blair was also an adviser to former Malawi President Joyce Banda during her presidency between 2012 and 2013. During the period, over K2 billion in public funds was stolen in the scandal known as cashgate.
Following the scandal, Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom demanded to know if Blair’s team knew about the corruption and what they did about it. They added that the corruption scandal raised embarrassing questions over Blair’s governance programme in Malawi.
