Public broadcaster, MBC, in K17m scam
by: Henry Chilobwe, 1/4/2005, 11:31:33 AM

The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) has been hit by K17 million ($157,407) fraud forcing the public broadcaster to suspend 12 of its employees from the business department.
Reports from inside sources indicate that over K10 million has not been accounted for at the Blantyre headquarters while K7 million was allegedly swindled at its Lilongwe bureau.
MBC Public Relations Officer Edith Tsilizani confirmed the suspensions last Thursday and said the issue is being handled by the police.
“We have indeed suspended many of our employees from the business department to pave way for police investigations,” said Tsilizani, adding that the suspended employees will not resume their duties until police investigations are over to avoid interfering with evidence.
She said the revelations of K7 million fraud at the Lilongwe office was the wake-up call that prompted the organisation to commission an internal audit exercise.
The audit report, she said, indicated that the business department failed to account for over K10 million, mainly from advertising.
“After the Lilongwe issue, management became suspicious of the dealings of the business department and instituted an internal inquiry that revealed some irregularities over the way company funds are being handled. That is why most of our employees have been suspended in order to investigate fully,” said Tsilizani but pointed out that the actual amount of money unaccounted for is not yet officially known.
This development follows the arrest of five people from the Lilongwe office on suspected K7 million fraud. The five are currently on bail awaiting trial and have since been suspended together with five others from the Blantyre headquarters.
The Lilongwe employees are alleged to have opened up a bank account which in December last year which they called MBC Beneficiary Fund and used to deposit cheques from MBC’s clients into this account.
Tsilizani said at the moment only two people are remaining at the Blantyre office’s business department while only one is manning the Lilongwe office.
“The Lilongwe and Blantyre business departments have three people working now. The rest have been suspended but we intend to redeploy our staff to beef up the shortage,” said Tsilizani
She added that: “The business department in Lilongwe was temporarily closed following the arrest of the five and we had no one to run the department but we sent one employee from the headquarters to man the department and it has now reopened,” said Tsilizani.
According to a top official from MBC, the suspended employees will not be receiving their monthly perks until the investigations are over.
But deputy Police Public Relations officer Kelvin Maigwa said he was not aware of any investigations at MBC.
“Our files do not show any case involving MBC, apart from the five arrests that were made in Lilongwe a few days ago,” said Maigwa.