MBC fires Mungomo: Board finds him guilty over theft and forgery charges

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)  Director of Programmes Albert Mungomo has been fired from his job after being found guilty of theft and forgery,  Nyasa Times understands.

The MBC Board made their unanimous decision at their meeting held in Mangochi after a disciplinary committee of the same Board found him guilty on all charges.

The MBC Board of Directors had summoned Mungomo to respond to allegations of theft and forgery of a Malawi Government document and signature of Secretary for the Department of Human Resource and Development Mr. Blessings Chilabade inviting himself to a non-existent government meeting in Lilongwe.

Mungomo used the invitation to claim MK 235,000.00 from MBC night allowances and cash for fuel to apparently travel to the bogus meeting.

According to information Nyasa Times has gathered, Mungomo is reported to have accepted to the Board of his wrong doing and that “It was an oversight” on his part.

However,  having learnt from his personal file that the latest incident of theft was a third one since he was employed at MBC , the Board decided to honour the regulations in the country’s Public Service Finance Act resulting in his outright dismissal for dishonesty and theft.

The once powerful ‘Mr. Madonzero’ is reported to have left the institution earlier in the week after the Board communicated their decision to him.

Nyasa Times investigations have established that this is not the first time Mungomo has been fired from MBC over theft.

In 1994, MBC fired Mungomo for stealing a cash cheque for terminal benefits of the late famous quizmaster Brightson Kalilani.

He was also arrested and convicted in 1996 by the Blantyre Magistrate court for forgery and theft after tearing a leaf from an MBC cheque book in the Accounts Department and forging the signature of the then MBC Director General and cashed it.

Although he got arrested and fired on all these serious offences, ‘Mr. Blantyre’ as Mungomo is popularly known found his way back to MBC after a presidential pardon by former Malawi leader Bakili Muluzi.

To earn the pardon, Mungomo cheated the former president that he had been fired from MBC in 1996 on political grounds for being pro multiparty advocate.

However, the unrepentant Albert Mungomo was fired again by the Muluzi administration after being found guilty on yet another charge of organising a staff revolt at MBC against the  UDF administration of Muluzi only to bounce back during the Bingu wa Mutharika regime.

At the time Mungomo was stealing the MBC money, he was serving the corporation as Director of Programmes courtesy of an injunction he obtained against the MBC board’s decision to demote him for incompetence.

When contacted Mungomo’s lawyer a Mr. Khan admitted accompanying him to the disciplinary hearing but indicated that Mungomois yet to brief him about the Board’s latest decision and pay legal fees.

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