Prosecution authorities are yet to move to bring to book suspects on the financial irregularities an external audit exposed at Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) two years after the revelations and recommendations.
The audit revealed that State produce trader Admarc suffered losses of about K330 million due to fraud and abuse, purportedly orchestrated by its own employees, including managers and directors.
In September 2022, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala recommended criminal proceedings against the perpetrators, but the Malawi Police Service is yet to take action.
But speaking in an interview on Saturday, he said Fiscal Police were finalising their investigations and are expected to proceed soon.
Said Chamkakala: “We cannot disclose the list of perpetrators at this stage as the investigation is not closed and doing so would jeopardise the investigation.”
On the other hand, National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya was elusive on the matter and requested more time before responding.
The fraudulent activities primarily involved a syndicate of about 50 employees, some from the accounts and audit departments. The schemes included bogus car insurance, fraudulent medical cover, and dubious staff loan arrangements.
During the same September 2022, the Admarc Board filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), but the bureau has not provided any updates during the past two years.
ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala did not respond to our questionnaire sent two weeks ago regarding the investigation delays.
Reacting to the handling of the matter, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament chairperson Mark Botomani said the delays were worrisome.
He said: “It is even more depressing to learn that someone somewhere is acting with impunity when it is clear that the issue is already on the radar of the relevant law enforcement agencies and direction was given.”
In a separate interview, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said delays to act on audit queries fuel abuse of public funds as people know they can escape accountability.
He said: “Oversight on implementing audit recommendations is lacking, rendering parliamentary inquiries ceremonial and wasteful of taxpayers’ money.
“When officers face the Public Accounts Committee, the process often ends there. Regrettably, the National Audit Office lacks constitutional authority to enforce change.”
Among other findings, the audit revealed that executive management, including managers and department heads, obtained loans totalling K65.5 million as of March 31 2022 and K45.8 million remained unrecovered.
The audit also revealed that senior Admarc members of staff obtained a total of K150 million in loans. However, by March 31 2022, there was an outstanding balance of K114.7 million to be recovered.
The external audit carried out by Graham Carr also revealed that Admarc lost millions of kwacha through medical aid scheme.
Admarc is one of the parastatals that have been struggling financially with the Malawi Government Annual Economic Report showing that as at half year of the 2021/22 financial year, it had reported a net loss-after-tax of K3.7 billion.
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