Those targetted for Cashgate prosecutions are breathing a sigh of relief as the Malawi Government has this morning shut down the Anti-Corruption Bureau premises country wide.
ACB deputy director Reyneck Matemba confirmed of the development in an interview with media , saying the reason for the closure have not yet been disclosed.
ACB staff country wide started the sit-in on Monday last week, demanding the government to increase their salaries by 70 percent. The staff accused government of breaching contractual agreement and vowed not to go back to work until their demands are met.
This is good for those people suspected and targetted for Cashgate prosecutions. A good defense lawyers technic is to delay court cases as long as possible because with time a lot can happen. Evidence can dissappear, Witness can die and meantime cashgate money that needs to be recovered can continue to be spent and get lost for ever.
Gondwe addressing the Media said that the bitter reality is that the Cashgate scandal, exposed last year which resulted in K20 billion of public resources being plundered, has left government cash-strapped, especially after donors also withheld 11 percent, and not the purported 40 percent, of their budgetary support to Malawi.
The two sides do not appear to be close to any setllement as Goodall Gondwe explained that while the government is actively tackling and revamping the public finance management systems, to prevent a recurrence of the Cashgate-like looting, it is also bent on harmonising salaries as a way of instilling discipline, fairness and motivation among civil servants and their colleagues in parastatals and other public service organisations.
Goodall Gondwe said the Judiciary already enjoys high salaries and somehow are on strike, demanding even higher salary increases than those the government had set.
The irony would be If the Cashgate plunderers can win twice. By draining the cash reserves of govenrment and having the same government fail to prosecute because of lack of funds.
