Africa-Press – Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera and his government is geared to redirect over K1 billion expected to recovered from the former government’s top goons into development and rebuilding the country, Nyasa Times has exclusively established.
The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] revered for needling treasury had its top guns amass over a billion Kwacha, which has been confiscated as ill-gotten wealth and due for use in development projects.
A highly placed impeccable source at the Financial Intelligence Authority [FIA] says the new administration will now use money locked in FIA’s confiscated funds’ for development.
“So far the confiscated funds spanning the DPP rule is K300 million and in the next couple of months we will get to one billion.
“That is the total amount of money confiscated on the premise of theft and corruption,” he said and pleaded for anonymity.
Government agencies will soon name sources of the one billion kwacha once ready and will be a clear showcase on how the DPP government with insatiable greed looted Malawi for self-aggrandizement.
This one billion kwacha recovery will form part of the kitty that new President Lazarus Chakwera who loathes corruption will use to finance signature projects.
Malawi has been reeling from several scandal gates largely precipitated by the former ruling DPP, whose senior officials are answering to numerous crimes.
In July 2020, President Chakwera said the DPP government led by Professor Arthur Mutharika pilfered over a 1 trillion Kwacha during its tenure of office.
The Malawi President said the erstwhile DPP politiburo has had billions stolen through corruption during former president Peter Mutharika’s administration.
In his state of the nation address last year, Chakwera said the plunder is contained in the recent Auditor General’s report which looks into how the government managed its finances for the past two years. Chakwera vowed to apprehend, without mercy, those involved in corruption.
President Chakwera said, among other things, the report shows that $10 million could not be accounted for, $1 million was used to pay for projects which were not completed and $400,000 was used for fuel without corresponding documents.
“If you don’t follow the law, the law will follow you,” Chakwera famously said.
Chakwera said the scale of the plunder is worse than a 2013 corruption scandal known as Cash gate in which about $32 million government money was looted through dubious contracts, during the administration of former president Joyce Banda. The Tonse Alliance led government leader said his government will not have mercy on those who were involved in the plunder of government finances.
He said “although I earlier said that those involved in malpractice should just refund the money, doing so is not enough, because the amount of taxpayers’ money which has been stolen is too big. So it is wrong to say that those involved should only be forgiven.”
Chakwera informed Malawians that he has already instructed the Minister of Justice to discuss with relevant stakeholders like the Malawi Police Service Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Judiciary to expedite cases of theft and corruption.
This, he said, includes cross-checking all civil servants workers earnings against wealth they have. Several people have so far been arrested in connection to offences committed during Mutharika’s administration.
Howeverm the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), now in the opposition, says the campaign amounts to political persecution — allegations the Chakwera administration denies.
