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High court speaks on cashgate cases

Most Cashgate related cases that State prosecutors are taking to court are not ready for trial because they are short on details, High Court spokesperson Joseph Chigona said on Thursday.

Joseph ChigonaBut Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bruno Kalemba has said he is satisfied with progress towards justice in the multi-billion kwacha fraud and corruption scam that has forced donors to freeze $150 million (about K60 billion) in budget support.

Meanwhile, University of Malawi’s Chancellor College dean of law Dr. Mwiza Nkhata has warned that the prosecution’s apparent lack of preparation could jeopardise successful conclusion of the cases.

Asked to comment on the slow pace at which courts are processing Cashgate cases, Chigona said the challenge is that the cases reaching the courts are not “trial ready”.

That is why, he said, while government has given the Judiciary K12 million to deploy judges to Lilongwe to try the cases, no judge has been sent.

“It will not be economically wise to send judges to Lilongwe to try cases that are not there or not ready for trial. We do not want a situation where a judge travels to Lilongwe only to sit for one hour and the case is adjourned at the insistence of the prosecution.

“We have put out all efforts to make sure all cases were done in time. There were instances where documents are not in order and judges have expressed concern. Judges have done the needful. We must say judges are ready to do their work and the prosecution has to do their home work properly,” Chigona said.

He said Lilongwe has five judges who are enough at the current pace of the prosecution of the Cashgate.

But Kalemba said last week he is satisfied with the prosecution’s work.

“Resources were provided and continue to be provided. Much as we have wanted to conclude some of the cases within three months, wheels of justice can sometimes grind slowly. I am nevertheless satisfied with the progress of the cases,” he said.

In an e-mail interview last week, Kalemba said out of 25 cases that are in court, the accused have been found with cases to answer in three while seven are awaiting a ruling on the same.

In the remaining 15 cases, the prosecution has one or two witnesses to conclude.

But Nkhata said it is worrying that the prosecution appears ill-prepared given that good results depend on preparations of the cases.

“There is no doubt that government money was stolen and very extensively. The stealing of government money involves criminality, which the law enforcement agencies must deal with. However, before charges are brought against anyone, it is important that investigations must be properly conducted and concluded. The prosecutor must be given enough material with which to conduct the prosecution. In the case of the Cashgate cases, I do not even know if all the investigations have been concluded into all the cases because if the investigations are not concluded then the prosecution cannot be or should not be commenced,” he said.

Nkhata added that even when the investigations are concluded, the prosecutor must decide whether the evidence from the investigation is sufficient for a prosecution.

“Again with the Cashgate cases we truly do not know where we are. In brief there are likely to be many factors affecting the pace of prosecution, among them could be the availability of resources, that is, for investigating and prosecuting the cases and of course the existence of the political will to push the prosecutions,” he observed.

State prosecutors have struggled to speed up the cases as planned due to what Kalemba said in January this year were “logistical reasons”.

Financial constraints were one of the logistical hiccups given that a Cashgate Trial Task Force comprising the Judiciary, DPP, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and other players asked for K170 million for the processing of the more than 100 Cashgate cases that were recorded by January this year, but were only given K65 million.

Among other things, the money was supposed to be spent on investigations, moving judges from various regions to Lilongwe and to secure other venues for holding cases as part of a broader strategy to speed up the cases.

Various stakeholders, including donors, have pushed for speedy prosecutions within the framework of the action plan on Cashgate.

The action plan’s effective implementation, analysts say, will be a major determining factor in the restoration of suspended budget support that accounts for roughly 40 percent of government’s total annual expenditure and is the second most important source of foreign currency after tobacco.

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