Paul Mphwiyo
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) – Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Saturday former Ministry of Finance Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo on ‘cashgate’-related charges.
Mphwiyo was arrested alongside his wife, Thandizo.
“The Anti-Corruption Bureau has on, October 18, 2014, arrested Mr. Paul Mphwiyo, the former Budget Director and his wife. Mr. Paul Mphwiyo has been arrested for suspected charges of theft, money laundering and defeating the course of justice. This is in relation to the ongoing investigation into ‘cashgate’,” read a brief statement from ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala.
Mphwiyo, 38, was shot on 13 September 2013 as he drove into his villa in the capital, Loilongwe. Soon after his shooting former president Joyce Banda declared she knew who shot Mphwiyo and described the person as her anti-corruption crusader in government.
The unprecedented shooting unravelled ‘cashgate’, the systematic plunder of public resources where businessmen and politicians connived with civil servants to skim millions of dollars from the government payment system for goods and services not rendered to government.
Over 70 civil servants and businessmen are currently in court answering ‘cashgate’ charges ranging from theft, theft by public officers to possession of property suspected of having been stolen, fraud and money laundering.
Mphwiyo, who had four bullets removed from his body and had his face reconstructed in South Africa, is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Theresa Senzani was first to be convicted in ‘cashgate’-related charges. She is now serving a three-year jail term.
On Friday an accounts assistant in the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Natural Resources, Victor Sithole, was also convicted in the ‘cashgate’-related charges but he is yet to be sentenced.
