Tembenu urges MPs to ensure prosecution

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Samuel Tembenu has challenged members of Parliament (MPs) to use decentralisation structures and ensure prosecution of government officials who indulge in theft in district councils.

Tembenu’s remarks in Parliament followed MPs’ calls that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) should act on officials who the Auditor General’s report on the accounts of councils for 2009 and 2010 found had misused or stolen government funds.

Contributing to the report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the audit report, Dowa East MP Richard Chimwendo Banda (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) disclosed that the finance committee of Dowa District Council had uncovered elements of Cashgate but the culprits were just transferred to another council.

“I would ask the Ministry of Justice to act on these people, not just transferring them. It is only when people are punished that others can learn and corruption can lessen,” he said.

But Tembenu said by virtue of being members of the council, MPs could move the police prosecutors to act on the offenders at council level.

“What happened in the councils was outright theft, not corruption. There are prosecution mechanisms in the districts and MPs can insist that they be brought to book. Issues of theft can be handled more swiftly than those of corruption,” he said.

Tembenu added that following last year’s national conference on corruption, the ministry was working on improving the law on the vice through development of pieces of legislation.