Staff defraud Blantyre Water Board
Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has lost revenue estimated at K128 million siphoned through a parallel account allegedly opened by two of its employees in the name of the company.
BWB sources said the employees suspected of involvement—debt collector Brian Makote and plumber Obina Liwonde—allegedly siphoned over K100 million from the parallel account opened at Nedbank Malawi Limited Blantyre Branch.
Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Elizabeth Divala yesterday confirmed that both BWB and Nedbank reported to Fiscal and Fraud Section of Police a case involving K128 million that was cashed after suspicious deposits of K150 million.
She said police investigations established that in June 2017, the suspects opened a BWB Welfare Fund account at Nedbank.
According to Divala, four cheques from the Malawi Police Service (MPS) and State Residences payable to BWB were deposited into the account between July and August this year, amounting to K150 million were deposited. She said the bank noted encashment of huge sums of money and two funds transfers to Multi Electricals bank account held at FDH Bank. She said the transfers to the FDH Bank account were worth K25 million.
Said Divala: “Investigations also established that Multi Electrical bank account belonged to Obi Liwonde, an employee of BWB working as a construction clerk.
“Police officers worked throughout the night to arrest the two suspects by checking in their respective houses, but they were nowhere to be found.”
She said investigations show that the two used the Mwanza border post to get out of the country.
BWB board chairperson James Naphambo yesterday said he was briefed about the developments, but said the matter was still being handled at managerial level; hence, referred The Nation to acting chief executive Henry Bakuwa for details.
However, Naphambo added that BWB can only move after police finalise their probe.
Efforts to talk to Bakuwa proved futile as he did not pick his phone after several attempts. When The Nation team visited BWB head office around 4pm it was learnt that Bakuwa was not in office.
Our sources said the bank account was opened in the name of BWB Social Welfare and numerous transactions were processed.
Another source corroborated the issue, saying the suspects used to collect company cheques from various clients and deposited in the parallel account before withdrawing large amounts later.
Said one source: “They [the suspects] would collect cheques from clients written ‘Pay Blantyre Water Board or Pay BWB’ and they would add Social Welfare at the end so that the cheque read; Blantyre Water Board Social Welfare.”
The scam got exposed two weeks ago after Makote allegedly went to withdraw K20 million from the account, according to our source. n
