GOVT yet to own Cashgate assets
Two years after some Cashgate convicts handed their properties to government; Capital Hill is yet to claim full ownership of the assets due to bureaucracy, The Nation has established.
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Apoche Itimu said government was yet to fully possess the properties because the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Attorney General (AG) were still processing the paperwork.
Some of the convicts who gave back their assets include former principal secretary for the Ministry of Tourism Tressa Senzani who—following her conviction on the charge of theft and laundering of K65 million—offered her house in Lilongwe’s Area 47 as compensation for the stolen funds.
Senzani walked to freedom yesterday after serving two thirds of her three-year sentence.
The other example is that of Oswald Lutepo, a private businessperson, who was convicted on a theft and money laundering K3.1 billion charge.
He restituted a company called Woget Industries and Cotton Ginnery located at Matindi along the M1 Road in Blantyre, but the property remains unclaimed by government.
According to a former employee of both Woget Industry and Cotton Ginnery, the company was directly and indirectly employing about 1 500 people and had an annual turnover of between K500 million and K1 billion.
Itimu said government has to finalise paperwork first before taking full control.
She said: “In relation to the properties, please be advised that obtaining full ownership of the same is a process, which involves both the offices of the DPP and the AG. Currently, both [offices] are working hand-in-hand to ensure that legally, ownership vests completely with the government.”
Itimu said government was yet to create an account where the refunded money would be deposited since a bank account would be created when the legal process has been finalised.
“You must remember that this is a relatively new scenario for the country,” she said, adding that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) would also know since they recovered some property.
In an interview last week, ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala said ACB holds an account with a bank where proceeds of restitution are held.
“If a person has been cleared, we pay back the money and if the case favours government, the money is remitted to Account Number One,” she said.
The shooting of former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo outside the gate of his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe on the night of September 13 2013 led to revelations of the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill that later came to be known as Cashgate.
Former president Joyce Banda ordered an audit which British forensic auditor, Baker Tilly, undertook covering the period between April and September 2013. The audit established that about K24 billion was siphoned from public coffers through dubious payments, inflated invoices and goods or services never rendered.
In May last year, a financial analysis report by audit and business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also established that about K577 billion in public funds could not be reconciliated between 2009 and December 31 2014.
However, a fresh forensic audit by British firm RSM Risk Assurance Limited established that the unreconciliated funds stood at K236 billion. n
