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Vice President Cassim Chilumpha may have to answer charges on his alleged involvement in the K187 million education scam in which he was implicated when serving as Finance Minister in the Bakili Muluzi administration.
Newly-appointed Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi said in an interview on Tuesday he is ready to work on the education case and review the consent that saved Chilumpha from prosecution in 2001.
“The public needs to know what happened to that case and transparency is very important. If the ACB feels that it wants to restart the case, then I will have the opportunity to review the case, ” said Wadi
Chilumpha was briefly arrested in March of 2001 and charged on three offences of corruption. The first count was that he received K24,450 ($226) as gratification from Greselder Jeffrey paid at his Nkhotakota South constituency, the second count was that he accepted K6,000 as gratification from Jeffrey, and the last count was that he accepted Jeffrey ferrying of voters in 1999 to rallies.
Chilumpha was also alleged to have authorised the ministry of education to pay about K56 million to Jeffrey for work not done.
But on May 17, 2001, the court dismissed the case and released Chilumpha after the Bureau failed to get consent from the then DPP Fahad Assani to prosecute him.
Wadi met ACB director Michael Mtegha on Wednesday this week to discuss the high profile cases which have resulted in the loss of K10 billion.
But on Friday this week the ACB declined to reveal any cases they feel the DPP should revisit saying that they are still waiting for a formal request.
“We cannot be drawn into commenting on that because we are still waiting for a formal request from the DPP. We just read that in the papers,” said Egrita Ndala, ACB public relations officer.
Wadi also told Nation Online that he will look at the Land Rover scam that saw government lose $7.5 million.
ACB recommended to former president Bakili Muluzi to discipline two cabinet ministers because they were found to have allegedly influenced the circumvention of franchise holders City Motors.
The two were alleged to have given the contract to Apex Car Sales despite insistence from Rover International of UK that they could only deal with City Motors.
The Bureau also found out that the Land Rovers were second hand and not brand new as said. The cars were also bought at a much higher price than the new cars and that Apex Car Sales was given promissory notes of about $1.5 million before delivering of vehicles.
The country’s traditional partners lost confidence in the former Muluzi administration such that they withheld budgetary support for three years citing graft as one of the problems.
The Danish government even went ahead to pull out of the country in 2002.
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