Constitute inquiry in the  maizegate scandal – Sinkamba

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 14:22:10 +0000

By KELVIN SIABANA

THE Green Party has commended Malawian President Peter Mutharika for appointing a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the procurement of 100, 000 metric tons of maize from Zambiaat a cost of US$34.5million.

Meanwhile, Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) has disclosed that the maize agency made its decision to purchase maize from Zambia without the consent of the board, its chairperson James Masumbu has said.

Green Party president Peter Sinkamba said the director general of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Malawi, Lucas Kondowe had disclosed that the bureau would work with the Anti-Corruption Commission of Zambia (ACC) to analyse documents related to the deal to establish, if there was any, wrongdoing.

“However, since President Edgar Lungu has committed himself to strongly fight corruption and considering that he recently expressed displeasure with the work of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), we urge him to consider setting up a multi-agency task force for this task,” Mr Sinkamba said.

Mr Sinkamba has appealed to President Lungu to consider setting up a multi-agency task force comprising of members from  the ACC, Money Laundering Unit from the  Drug Enforcement Commission,  (DEC), the Frauds Unit of Zambia Police, Financial Intelligence Unit, the Auditor General and Attorney General to compliment efforts of the Malawian Government so that a thorough job was done.

“Furthermore, since the reporting period for the Malawian Commission of Inquiry is thirty days only, we urge President Lungu to move with the same speed to get the Zambian side equal to the task by setting up the proposed multi-agency task force promptly,” said Mr Sinkamba.

The Malawian Chief Secretary to government, Lloyd Muhara,  recently announced that President Mutharika had established the inquiry in accordance with the Inquiries Act  Section 2 (1) and the Constitution in Section 89 (1) (g).