GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL TANGLED IN K15 MILLION LOAN SCAM

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the post today, let’s first set the scene.

The setting is Malawi’s Capital City; specific location, next to the Kamuzu Masouleum. In this magnificent building used by a bunch of men and women who claim that they serve the country through representation. For purposes of this write-up I will call them “lawnmakers”.

We are still zooming in and here we come to one office which is occupied by a woman in her thirties who many have nicknamed “Iron Lady” (Depending on what Iron means). This blog will call this woman by the  title COP (Chief of Plunder)

Ask a contingent of some “lawnmakers” years back. They felt the wrath of this lady who was determined to bring what she called “discipline” among them. Whether discipline was instilled or not is debatable. But looking at the average conduct of these lawnmakers I have my strongest doubts.

Back to the office of Chief of Plunder. Shady deals have been made here before; there was a time she was trending her domestic company to run some affairs within the building. Many people, including the “lawnmakers” cried foul for corruption. Guess who defended her? The Big Kahuna (oops they banned the use of that word right?)

Not only that. The Anti Corruption Bureau failed to probe into the issue and worse still they never said why.      

Chief of Plunder is truly a survivor. Not only has she survived a car accident and public wrath but her very name stands for “powerful and mighty in battle”

Powerful and mighty she might be but COP has found her shield inadequate after the death of the Big Kahuna (how many times should I apologize for using the banned title). 

Currently, she is in an uncomfortable position now as she has to part with close to K680,000 every month to repay a loan of some K15 Million which she acquired through unscrupulous means.

The abuse of the loan facility has landed her into this scandal and she has influenced the accounting department to deduct such a huge amount from her stipend knowing that the whole deal was wrong in the first place. Why the hasty repayment? It seems the realization that the new administration does not condone such “financial foolishness” is scaring her to the pit.

The loan must be recovered. So, she is currently getting a net salary of K81 000 from a whooping K758 000!!!

However, even in the midst of this scandal she continues to act mercilessly on public funds. Reports are that she is paid K60 000 per month as fuel allowance and yet she continues to draw fuel from pool resources every 3 days.

HOW COP ABUSED THE LOAN:

The Chief of Plunder owes government more than K14 million accumulated within one year. By December 2011 she had over K4.2 million. She advised the Financial Controller to amalgamate all her loans so that she could access more, which she did. K8 million was paid in her account (withheld) in November 2012 at a bank that claims to always move forward though it seems their mobility is either sideways or backwards for the common Malawian.

On April 25, 2012 she got yet another loan K2.2 million paid through the same account.

Worse still, the lady has been involving her uncle and her boyfriend in her loan deals as together they have flouted procedure.

Government system does not allow payment of loans through Other Recurrent Transactions-ORT (things like payment of salaries etc) but this is exactly what these three have been doing with approval from the lady.

Initially the payment vouchers were in respect of allowances for staff. When the voucher was printed (after going through some channels), the payment vouchers for the three were manually changed to read "Motor Vehicle Advance as attached" for COP and "General Purpose Advance" for Uncle and Boyfriend.

As Malawians are toiling and giving their hard earned money to government through taxes, some public officials think they can just enrich themselves just because they have influence and direct and easy access to government’s purse. Shame on you!!!!