Blantyre, Malawi, Oct. 17 (MaraviPost) _ The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Saturday arrested former Ministry of Finance Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo on ‘cashgate’-relatedcharges.
Mphwiyo was arrested alongside his wife, Thandizo.
“The Anti-Corruption Bureau has today, 18th October, 2014, arrested Mr. Paul Mphwiyo, the former Budget Director and his wife. Mr. Paul Mphwiyo has been arrested for suspected charges of theft, money laundering and defeating the course of justice. This is in relation to the ongoing investigation into ‘cashgate’,” reads a brief statement from ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala.
Mphwiyo, now 38, was shot on September 13 last year as he drove into his villa in the capital, Lilongwe. Soon after his shooting former president Joyce Banda declared she knew who shot Mphwiyo who she described as her anti-corruption crusader in government.
The unprecedented shooting unravelled ‘cashgate’, the systematic plunder of public resources where businessmen and politicians connived with civil servants to skim millions of dollars from the government payment system in payment for goods and services not rendered to government.
An audit by the British audit firm Baker Tilly, authorised by Banda, revealed that at least 13 billion Malawi kwacha (about US $30m) was skimmed from government. Following Mphwiyo’s shooting huge sums of money in Malawi Kwacha, South African Rands and US dollars started showing up in unlikely places like hidden in car boots (trunks), stuffed in baby dolls, stashed under beds or under pillows. The suspects were avoiding the formal banking sector since the unexplained money could have raised eye-brows.
Over 70 civil servants and businessmen are currently in court answering ‘cashgate’ charges ranging from theft, theft by public officers to possession of property suspected of having been stolen, fraud and money laundering.
Western donor nations and agencies, which provide 40 percent of Malawi’s budget, pulled the plug on vital aid worth around US $150m in reaction to the scandal.
Although she was not directly fingered in ‘cashgate’, the scandal – the worst financial in the southern African country’s 50-year history as an independent country – could have cost Banda, Africa’s second female president, the May 20 elections.
Mphwiyo, who had four bullets removed from his body and had his face reconstructed in South Africa, is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Former Principal Secretary in the ministry of Tourism Theresa Senzani was first to be convicted in ‘cashgate’-related cases. She was sentenced to three years in jail earlier this month. On Friday an Accounts Assistant in the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Natural Resources, Victor Sithole, was also convicted in the ‘cashgate’-related cases. He is yet to be sentenced.-maravipost