Chakwera meets Ntata to tap knowledge on corruption fight
President Lazarus Chakwera met London-based law expert Allan Z. Ntata who launched a citizen-led initiative to help build and ensure public accountability.
State House Director of Communication Sean Kampondeni told the Weekly Press Conference in Lilongwe that Chakwera maet Ntata a law barrister who had previously worked at Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and also served as late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s legal advisor.
Ntata established a watchdog called Independent Commission on Accountability and Transparency (iCAT) geared toward investigating, and supporting the prosecuting and preventing acts of corruption in both the public and private sectors of the Malawian society, including educating the public about the ills of corruption and the benefits of its eradication.
According to Kampondeni, President Chakwera appreciates the literature which Ntata has been writing regarding to fighting corruption.
Kampondeni told the Weekly Press Conference in Lilongwe that the President has already demonstrated willingness to clamp down on corruption and deal with all backlog of Cashgate cases.
He said President Chakwera wants a specialised financial division within the Judiciary to achieve Tonse Alliance administration’s desire to speed up financial crimes.
Chakwera in his maiden State of the Nation Address (Sona) on September 4 2020 said his administration was geared to facilitate the setting of High Court’s financial division to speed up financial crimes.
Professor Danwood Chirwa, a dean of law at University of Cape Town in South Africa said the idea of financial division of the High Court is “hugely welcome” and necessary going by the volume of financial crimes.
“The criminal division has too much work, considering that much of the case load in the courts concerns crime. This criminal division lends itself to further subdivision such as into a sexual offences division to deal with this highly specialised area.
“Financial crimes are complex and have become endemic and need specialised adjudicatory skills much as they also need specialised investigative and prosecutorial agencies,” Chirwa said in quotes reported by daily newspaper, The Nation.
He recommend that in addition to a specialised division for financial crimes, there must also be established a special investigative agency for financial crimes (excluding corruption), and a special prosecutorial agency for these financial crimes.
“[Of course] to be effective the new High Court division for financial crimes would require the appointment of additional judges and specialised training for both new and experienced judges,” Chirwa said.
Corruption is a major challenge to economic development, poverty alleviation, democratic governance, the justice framework and the rule of law in many countries including Malawi. It leads to imprudent public spending and waste of public resources. The practice is a universal phenomenon that transcends culture, nationality and race.
Malawi is reeling from a mass corruption scandal christened as Cashgate which London-based auditors RSM ( formerly Baker Tilly) revealed about K13 billion was lost from 2012 during the administrations of Joyce Banda.
Chakwera unseated former leader Peter Mutharika in a June 23 re-run election after the 2019 polls were overturned by a court, citing irregularities.
Critics had accused former president Mutharika of doing little to tackle corruption.
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Level ya Chakwera ndi Mtata emweyo basi. Ooooooh what a dull president we have. Nanga zowona the whole president reporting to us that he met Mtata? Really?
Ntata is a useless guy. I worked with him at Anti corruption bureau in the prosecution department. He even failed to write a legal opinion . Knowing that he will be fired, he started mobilizing staff to rise against management of Acb on salary increment. He is an opportunistic.Seeing danger, he resigned from Acb and travelled to Australia to teach. Lucky enaf a Bingu anamutola as legal advisor but didn’t perform.Too much katangale. When bingu died he indeed ran away only to come back when Peter won the election in 2014. He tried to meet Peter but was rejected and… Read more »
Watching what Chakwera will do. Why was this global nobody even granted an audience. Tinyimbo tomwe tija. He has no moral fiber… he wont mass the moral litmus test.
Aea ndi matolera…. why was this article even written??
Waste of time meeting Ntata. This is the guy who used to give stupid advise to Bingu and he had run away when Bingu died because he was afraid of arrest because of the stupid advise that he gave Bingu. Chakwera seems to be dear to such redundant and some of them are Brian Banda’ The thief he employed as financial director at state house. Brian Banda has more records of soliciting Bribes and was dismissed twice at Times.
Thus great , just like RSA we have the Hawks
munthu osawa mtendereyu. timamwa nae mowa pa Chimwemwe in Bt lero muziti he is UK based Lawyer. Mr. President avoid meeting every jim amd jack. You will eventually be lost in the wilderness. Ntata and Wandale are fortune seekers and are looking for money. they will tell you whatever they can just to win ur heart and start dinning with you. be careful…..
Good move.
Ntata comes out as a disgruntled opportunist. Malawi must brace itself for hot air from the moment he is thrown out from whatever task the Tonge Government may assign to do.
Just leave him on the sidelines as our loud commentator. The proximity you Chakwera offers to this hound it will lead you to a berserk leadership these are professional fleas. His empty commentaries have cropped him handsome cheques his analysies have been too personal to create a well premised critique, Ntata another Bakili
Ntata lacks the requisite moral backbone to have such huge responsibilities as suggested in this article. If his excellency is really contemplating this move, kaya.
A Ntata ali ndi even 1 thing to show? Who did they investigate and got prosecuted in Malawi or anywhere else in the world? Bullshill.
This is a scared opportunist who ran away the moment Bingu died; anathawa maliro