HRDC recommends expedited prosecution DPP officials involved in plunder of Mombera University funds

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has recommended that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) should urgently prosecute Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials involved in the embezzlement of financial resources allocated to the construction of Mombera University during the DPP regime.

The recommendation follows the decision ACB has taken to institute investigations into alleged plunder of public funds in the construction of the nonexistent Mombera University where the DPP government employed hundreds of ghost workers.

The probe comes after ‘fruitless’ outcomes of criminal investigations launched by Malawi Police Service into alleged fraudulent expenditure of public funds on operations of the Mombera University project after an audit report showed that K1.2 billion could not be accounted for.

In December 2020, HRDC, in its whistleblower role, lodged a complaint at the bureau, alleging that in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, a total of K2.483 billion was spent on the inexistent university.

The coalition’s deputy national chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa said now that ACB has sufficient reasons to institute a probe, Malawians expect that the investigation would be expedited to pave the way for criminal proceedings against all those involved in the plunder.

“It is sad that investigations into such abuses often take forever, which perpetuates a culture of impunity and corruption,” said Kaiyatsa in an interview with one of the daily papers in Malawi.

Mombera University, which President Lazarus Chakwera renamed Inkosi M’mbelwa University, is among high profile projects the Tonse Alliance committed to pursue after the two DPP administrations used the project to reward and award its cadets.

In 2018, government budgeted K72 billion for the project. Currently, its most visible structures are a tarred road and an incomplete entrance with corresponding walls that briefly stretch out a few metres.

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