Malawi’s Attorney General Thabo Nyirenda has given companies and individuals a 60-day ultimatum to return funds allegedly received through shady state procurement deals or risk prosecution.
In a statement on Sunday, Nyirenda called on all individuals and institutions that may have been complicit in dubious deals that defrauded the government to come forward by March 9 or risk prosecution.
“Pursuant to justice and restitution balancing act, the Attorney General also wishes to announce a 60-day general amnesty to all those who might have defrauded government or illicitly acquired wealth whether through procurement fraud and corruption or otherwise, but willing to restitute or voluntarily surrender the said wealth within 60 days from the date hereof,” Nyirenda said.
He added: “The amnesty extends to the 77 Cashgate files that are currently before the prosecution authorities, the commercial banks that facilitated Cashgate and to the investigations connected with Mr. Zuneth Sattar,” said Nyirenda.
Cashgate is the biggest financial scandal in Malawi’s history, which happened between 2012 and 2014 during the tenure of former president Joyce Banda.
At the centre of the scandal was a computer-based financial information storage system that was allegedly manipulated by some government officials to divert millions from government coffers.
It is estimated that up to US$250 million may have been lost through allegedly fraudulent payments to businessmen for services that were not rendered.
Zuneth Sattar, on the other hand, is a local businessman who has been implicated in several shady state procurement deals, one of which led to last month’s arrest of Lands and Urban Development Minister Kezzie Msukwa.
The minister, who is out on bail, is accused of allegedly taking bribes from Sattar to influence the award of land to companies belonging to the businessman.
JN/APA