BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) on Monday disputed Daily Times story that claimed Treasury paid out MK4 billion to the commission on the eve of May 21 polls.
The article which most media houses carried sourced from Daily Times insinuate that the paid money could be behind electoral fraud under the court contention.
But in a press statement released made available to The Maravi Post, signed by MEC’s Spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa observed that the said account is not a personal account of Mr Sam Alfandika.
“This is a proper corporate bank account with seven signatories with various levels of authority or mandate as the case with all corporate bank accounts”, disputes Mwafulirwa.
Below is the full MEC clarification statement on MK4billion deposited into MEC Chief
The Malawi Electoral Commission would like to clarify and provide proper information regarding the K4 billion reported by the “Daily Times” of Monday 1st July 2019 as having been deposited into the Chief Elections Officer account held with FDH Bank.
As a starting point, the “Chief Election Officer” account is a legitimate bank account name and is one of the several bank accounts that the Commission has with commercial banks in the country. The Chief Elections Officer, as an officer defined in the Act,
is the Controlling Officer of the Malawi Electoral Commission and all the funds and resources of the MEC are under his control.
The Commission would like to state, in very strong terms, that this is not a personal account of Mr Sam Alfandika. This is a proper corporate bank account with seven signatories with various levels of authority or mandate as the case with all corporate bank accounts.
It is a normal practice for public institutions to have an account after the title of the organization, the principal secretary or indeed the Chief Executive Officer for the ministry, department or public institution.
The Commission opened the Chief Elections Officer account at the then Malawi Savings Bank in 2014 with authorization of the Secretary to the Treasury. Through a circular dated 19th September 2013, Treasury banned encashment of government cheques over MK500,000 at the counter. This gave operationalchallenges for MEC as from time to time, it is expected to pay cash to polling staff and other stakeholders during elections exercises.
Therefore, on 24th March 2014, the Secretary to the Treasury authorized the opening of the Chief Elections Officer Account to facilitate such payments. The account has been operational since then and has always been audited by the Auditor General in line with Government systems.
The operational procedure is that all government funding goes into the MEC IFMIS account domiciled at the Southern Region Treasury Cashier. For money to be transferred into the Chief Elections Officer account at FDH Bank, MEC writes the Accountant General for authorization justifying the amount and also the purpose and the Accountant General gives a “No objection” when he is satisfied with the reasons provided.
Stakeholders are hereby informed that MEC submits to the accountant General monthly liquidations of payments made through the CEOs Account by the 14th of every subsequent month.
Regarding the K4 billion that was reported in the “Daily Times”, the nation should be informed that this amount was duly authorized by the Accountant General. In March 2019 the Treasury also transferred MK8.5 billion. These amounts were meant to facilitate payment of printing of ballot papers and other bills for electoral activities, and allowances for security officers, polling staff and other service providers during the polling exercise.
The Commission is also in the process of transferring MK1.2 billion into the “Chief Elections Officer” account to facilitate the payments of other outstanding electoral expenses such as hiring of trucks for polling exercise and field staff allowances.
It should be common knowledge that there is no commercial bank that can allow a public officer to open a personal account in the name of his official title.
Related to the same, the Commission would like to explain issues regarding a copy of a cheque drawn to Mr. George Yona. Mr. Yona was engaged as a cashier to make several payments for polling workers in Ntchisi.
There were many government cashiers that MEC deployed to pay polling staff throughout the country during the polling exercise. The Commission requested the Accountant General to assist with Accounting Staff to assist in the task of paying polling staff. In a bid to avoid movement of huge sums of cash, cheques were drawn in the names of such staff so that they could cash and pay where they were assigned.
The Commission would like to appeal to the media to exercise diligence when giving out information to the public to avoid causing unnecessary injury to innocent persons. The reporter of the story contacted MEC on Sunday and was advised to collect all the documents regarding the account and the MK4 billion transaction first thing Monday morning.
To our surprise, the editors went on to publish a half-baked story without full information. All the tension created could have been avoided. The public might also be interested to note that MEC has been paying several of its service providers, including Times Group, using the same CEO account.
The Commission has also seen pictures of a building under construction with a tag that it belongs to the MEC Chief Elections Officer, Mr. Sam Alfandika. We would like to categorically refute this and in the same vein encourage the media to exercise restraint on fabricating and spreading of lies that can jeorpadise other people’s property.