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Education Minister Yusuf Mwawa used his ministry to pay K160,550 for his wedding ceremony which took place at Le Meridien Mount Soche Hotel last month, Nation Online has established.
According to insiders at the ministry headquarters in Lilongwe, the money was paid from the Education Special Client Account for a seminar at Le Meridien Mount Soche Hotel, which turned out to be a wedding.
The ministry drew cheque number 001035 to be paid from account number 0141737300 at National Bank Capital City Branch on March 23, 2005, three days before the Minister’s big day.
Baxter Mpando, Deputy Secretary in the ministry, yesterday confirmed that payment was made for a function at the hotel from the special account. He could not comment when asked whether he knew what the payment was for.
“I will come back to you,” he said, but did not.
The Education Special Client Account, Nation Online found out, is only drawn from to pay private agencies contracted to do work for the ministry or sort out bills for workshops or seminars planned by the ministry.
A receipt from the owners of the hotel, Sunbird Tourism Hotels, shows that the cheque was received from a Mr. Ntonga, the minister’s personal assistant.
Mount Soche’s Food and Beverages Manager Oswald Bwemba yesterday said the hotel never hosted any function for the Ministry of Education between 23 and 26 March.
The minister’s wedding to Diana Nkhulembe, Vice President Cassim Chilumpha’s press officer, took place on Saturday, March 26.
“What we know is that the minister asked for a blank quotation from our guys, which they gave him after a small discussion…The quotation came back as a booking for a seminar,” said one hotel staffer.
The Minister could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday as he was said to be in the USA on official business, but his personal assistant Ken Ntonga, who paid the hotel, said he could not remember what function he was paying the cheque for.
“I will have to be in the office to check for that,” he said.
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