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MHC in K48m corruption probe
By
Our Reporter - 01-07-2002 |
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The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is investigating Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) officials over allegations that they accepted and corruptly signed delivery notes for undelivered goods valued at K48 million.
ACB deputy director Alexious Nampota said in a statement that the Bureau arrested Blantyre businessman Abdul Karim Batatawala on June 21 in connection with the same deal.
He said Batatawala has since been released on bail after paying the sum of K700,000 cash and producing two sureties of K500,000 not cash.
Nampota said the Bureau arrested Batatawala, proprietor of several businesses in Blantyre because he is alleged to have invoiced MHC for K48 million “for goods he did not supply”.
The ACB said investigations were still going on and “more arrests” would follow.
Meanwhile, in view of the MHC scandal, the Bureau has appealed to all public officers to remember that they hold their positions in trust for the people of Malawi.
The Bureau said public officers need to discharge their functions with the highest degree of honesty to protect public finances.
This is the second time in two years that MHC has come under an ACB probe. The first was in 2000 when the ACB investigated MHC over some transactions including the dubious allocation of houses to tenants and the sale of a BMW saloon formerly used by its chief executive at about K17,000.
In another development, the ACB also arrested Luke Woyera Chirwa, a former pupil of Limbe Private Secondary School in Blantyre, on allegations that he collected money from students who failed 2000 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.
It is alleged that Chirwa passed on the money to a Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) official to produce forged examination transcripts indicating that the failed candidates had, in fact, passed the examinations.
“The students who obtained the examination transcripts succeeded in either securing employment or places at various colleges for further training,” said the Bureau.
Chirwa’s case comes barely four months after Maneb executive director Matthews Matemba admitted that the integrity of Malawi certificates was under threat because of continued cases of forgery.
Matemba said in an interview in February this year that Maneb started issuing certificates with embedded security features similar to the ones used on bank notes since 2000. He said cases of forgery were so serious that some international organisations have reached a point of verifying Malawi certificates with Maneb because they lack security features. |
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