Editors PickNational News

Debate exposes gaps in graft fight laws

Panellists to a debate on fighting corruption in the country on Saturday proposed harmonising the Corrupt Practices Act (CPA) and Financial Crimes Act to enhance efforts to bust corruption.

During the debate under the theme Winning the Fight Against Corruption in Malawi Has to Start With Me in Mzuzu, the panellists exposed gaps in the country’s corruption laws, especially with regard to recovery of assets proven to have been acquired corruptly. They also called for domestication of some international laws.

Mwafulirwa: The Act is not robust

The panellists cited some provisions in the CPA and the Financial Crimes Act that provide for recovery of assets obtained through corrupt practices which they said need to be harmonised.

One of the panellists, Mzuzu-based lawyer Wesley Mwafulirwa, said the CPA was not robust when it comes to assets recovery and liability. He said the Financial Crimes Act was stronger; hence, the need for law reforms and harmonisation in this area.

He said: “We have robust laws in anti-money laundering laws unlike in the anti-corruption laws.”

Mwafulirwa said while the CPA provided no corporate liability, meaning that a company cannot be held criminally liable under the Act, in the Financial Crimes Act, a company can pay a fine for money laundering albeit with a wrong assumption that corruption leads to money laundering.

He said: “Corporate liability should be considered in the

Corrupt Practices Act or maybe have one law in terms of financial crimes, anti-corruption laws and money laundering laws.

“I have always argued that it is wrong to assume that every corruption leads to money laundering, but you can have a corruption case without money laundering. It is a big problem.”

On domestication of international laws and conventions, Mwafulirwa said despite Malawi ratifying the African Union Convention on Prevention and Combating of Corruption and United Nations Convention Against Corruption, it was unfortunate that the country has not yet domesticated them.

Human rights activist Moses Mkandawire, who is executive director of Church and Society Programme—the development arm of Livingstonia CCAP Synod, said time has come for Malawians to stand up and fight corruption because the authorities are passive on graft fight.

He said: “Instead of acting on corruption, some Malawians are worshipping those that are corrupt.”

In his contribution, Malawi Law Society (MLS) Mzuzu Chapter president Victor Gondwe said Section 23 of the CPA gives the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general the powers to seize any property that is subject of investigation.

The debate, organised by a movement calling itself United Against Serious and Organised Corruption in Malawi comprising MLS, Youth and Society (YAS), Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Church and Society of Livingstonia Synod, came against the background of rising cases of corruption in the country.

Respondents to a Nation Publications Limited (NPL) survey last week poorly rated the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) poorly in the fight against graft, with 88 percent suggesting the body is failing to effectively stem out corruption in the country.

But ACB director general Reyneck Matemba attributed the low rating to the handling of the K2.8 billion Malawi Police Service (MPS) food rations contract where the supplier, Pioneer Investments, made a claim of an additional K466 million and deposited K145 million into a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account at Standard Bank whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika, a day after getting the contract payment.

The ACB cleared the President, but three weeks ago arrested owner of Pioneer Investment and two senior police officers in connection with the excess claim of K466 million.

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