1 700 deceased estates beneficiaries affected

• Robbed of breadwinners by death
•  1 707 deceased estates swindled by govt officials
•  Culprits walking scot-free

Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has over 1 700 complaints on deceased estates worth about K80 million which were swindled by civil servants over seven years ago.

In an e-mailed response on Wednesday last week, MHRC executive director Grace Malera said the complaints came from various families, mainly in the Southern and Central regions, seeking payments from the deceased estates.

“Our investigations revealed that the Office of the Administrator General allegedly experienced fraud in the form of bogus payments through one of its accounts held at one commercial bank,” Malera said.

“This fraud is to the tune of K79 854 846.59 and affected some 1 707 beneficiaries.’’

She said, because of the fraud, the office of the Administrator General has been unable to pay the beneficiaries. Our subsequent investigations show that government’s failure to pay beneficiaries of the deceased estates has resulted in some orphans dropping out of school and, in the case of some girls, early pregnancies.

Administrator General Beauty Movete confirmed on Tuesday last week that her office is under pressure to settle claims on deceased estates that remained unpaid by 2008.

But she said her office did not have any record on measures taken to identify and punish the culprits.

Said Movete: ‘‘All I know is that money was diverted from the pool account. By whom, I do not know; neither do I know the status of their case. But what I gather is that it was not a single individual but it involved officials from here and their accomplices from outside the system.

‘‘It involved a network of people who collaborated on the same. But the police might have an idea of how it was handled.

‘‘Government switched banks that were administering the fund after noting that a network of officers was taking advantage of the system’s porosity to siphon the funds from the pool account.

“The claims that we are struggling with at the moment are those that were not paid before 2008 when the system was changed from using a pool account at one commercial bank to the current setup where we have separate accounts at another bank. The problem is that at the moment we do not have the money to pay those old claims.”

National Police spokesperson Nicholas Gondwa on Wednesday last week referred Weekend Nation to Southern Region police spokesperson James Kadadzera to check with Fiscal Police, but the latter on Thursday said they have no record of the alleged fraud.

“Much as we would have wished to comment on the issue, our search has not found any files to do with that. However, as a matter of progress, we would like to ask all those that were communicated that their money was stolen to register their complaints with the police. In that way, we would be able to follow what happened. But as it stands, we do not have much information that we can give,” said Kadadzera.

Malera said MHRC was determined to see justice is done on the officials implicated in the alleged fraud as their actions had massive negative repercussions on the lives of dependents of deceased estates.

Said Malera: “The government must fully investigate the alleged fraud and bring the perpetrators to book and the money must be recovered.

“In the meantime, the State must do all it can to ensure that the beneficiaries are paid their money. People should not be made to suffer twice. It is disheartening to note that when payments take too long, the actual amounts lose their economic value.”

The MHRC is mandated to protect and promote human rights in the country. To fulfil this mandate, it is empowered to investigate human rights violations, including those bordering on economic, social and cultural rights.

According to the MHRC chief, the commission will conduct a detailed investigation to establish the dynamics of the case.

Malera also said MHRC would be interested to establish whether the police or other relevant authorities conducted forensic investigations and if any arrests were made in connection with the alleged malpractice at the office.

Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Minister Patricia Kaliati said her ministry would investigate the issue because it affects the welfare of children and women.

“Since we have a law that seeks to protect women and children, we have an obligation to ensure that such groups are protected,” Kaliati said.

“As a ministry we have a lawyer who takes up such cases and if there is need, we will engage the services of our legal representative to ensure that women and children are protected,” she added.

A Blantyre-based human rights lawyer, Chikondi Ngwira, said in an interview the State had an obligation to show commitment in ensuring that the rights of deceased estates beneficiaries are safeguarded.

She said even before the enactment of the Wills and Inheritance Act, also referred to as the Deceased Estates Act, the office of the Administrator General had a duty to act as a protector of deceased estates.

“What it means is that the office is given powers by the Constitution to act as a trustee of deceased estates. Under this framework, the Administrator General is entrusted with the duty of keeping and distributing the deceased estates on trust by the owners. If the office fails to perform this duty, then it abrogates its own mandate and should be made answerable for this failure,” Ngwira said.

She said: “The beneficiaries can seek legal action against the State either as individuals or collectively as their rights have been violated.

“What is notable here is that those that were put into positions to take care of their wealth failed to perform that duty and should be made answerable.”

While questions are being asked as to how the dependents whose money was lost would be assisted as liability falls on government, Ministry of Finance spokesperson Nations Msowoya said Treasury has not received a request for replacement of funds.

‘‘In that case, the Administrator General, being the controlling officer of that office, should have written a report and request for funds. In the absence of such documents, I do not know how the officials at that office would help the people who are affected,” he said.

Said Msowoya: ‘‘We have checked our files and we have not come across any request to fund the Administrator General’s office following the fraud.

Asked if her office requested funds from the Treasury, Movete said she did not have information relating to the request as she was new in the office.

Due to inflation and depreciation of the kwacha the K79 854 846.59 had much more economic value seven years ago than now. This means that the claimants would have benefited a lot from the deceased estates if they were paid on time. n