ACB turns on Mutharika

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will next Tuesday interrogate former president Peter Mutharika on how his taxpayer identification number (TPIN) was deceitfully used by other individuals while he was in office.

This comes exactly a year after revelations that his TPIN was used to import 800 000 bags of cement worth K5 billion from Zambia and Zimbabwe, a development that also led to the arrest of his personal bodyguard Norman Chisale and State Residences chief of staff Peter Mukhito.

Besides the two aides, other individuals arrested in connection with the scandal were former Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) deputy commissioner general Roza Mbilizi and a Lilongwe-based Asian businessman Ahmed Chunara.

The graft-busting body said in a statement yesterday, the former president’s questioning is part of the bureau’s on-going investigation process into allegations of abuse of his TPIN.

“The bureau would like to let Malawians know that this is a normal and legal process which started in 2020. The ACB hopes that this will put the record straight on the various stories circulating in the social media surrounding this matter,” reads the statement signed by the bureau’s principal public relations officer Egrita Ndala.

However, the statement did not indicate whether the ACB investigators would travel to Mutharika’s Page Residence in Mangochi or he had been summoned to the bureau’s office.

The statement further said the interview would be conducted under observance of Covid-19 prevention guidelines.

Mutharika already denied any involvement in the saga saying he learnt with shock that MRA approved the clearance of the duty free cement using his TPIN.

The Malawi Police Service led by former head of Criminal Investigations Department the late Bob Mtekama already questioned the former president on his involvement in the cement importation saga.

After the saga, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) asked the

Tonse Alliance administration to hold Mutharika to account as the transactions were a clear case of abuse of entitlement.

In an interview yesterday, HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence expressed delight that ACB was finally taking a bold decision to interrogate the former president.

“It is high time Malawians knew the truth surrounding allegations of abuse of the former president’s TPIN on the importation of cement,” he said.