As long as the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) moves fast to effect arrests for fraud and corruption only on small fish, critics of this DPP government and opposition leaders, there will always be questions about its impartiality in tackling these vices in our country.
The graft-busting body was hyperactive this week, arresting former Home Affairs minister Uladi Mussa and charged him with negligence and abuse of office.
Mussa is sharing the two charges with former Immigration boss Hudson Mankhwala and another Immigration senior official David Kwanjana.
All this has got to do with the trio granting citizenships and passports to 22 Burundians, 16 Rwandans, nine Ugandans and three Tanzanians.
Malawi belongs to those who were born Malawians. But as a nation we have an obligation under international laws and treaties and so we recognize the fact that we can grant Malawi citizenship to a foreigner under certain circumstances and the Immigration Department, with its parent Ministry of Home Affairs, play a role.
Everything being equal, the ACB has a duty to arrest Mussa and the others to face the law if the bureau has evidence that they abused their positions and the trust of Malawians by giving foreigners our cherished citizenship under suspicious circumstances.
The court will then pronounce them guilty or not at an appropriate time.
This is what happens in a country that is fair and just for everyone and has rule of law as its overriding principle.
The only problem, which becomes the undoing of ACB, is that it is selective and seems to move fast on corruption or power abuse suspects who are
either critics of the government or opposition leaders.
That is why you cannot fault Mussa when he sees the hand of the DPP administration and its fingerprints written all over his incarceration on Monday.
The question that Malawians, who cherish and dream of a fair and just Malawi, are asking is the time when deposed Agriculture Minister George Chaponda will also sample a police cell after being arrested as it happened to Mussa.
The accusation against Chaponda is similar to Mussa’s in that both are suspected to have used their office to benefit somebody without following laid down procedures found in the relevant laws.
Chaponda told the commission that he helped Transglobe Producers to supply maize to Admarc from Zambia because they came to him looking for help and that as a politician he could not turn away anybody as he will need votes come 2019.
The Commission of Inquiry that President Peter Mutharika appointed to probe circumstances surrounding the deal rejected this strange view and found that Chaponda’s behavior, as regards the importation of maize from Zambia, especially in his dealings with Transglobe, was “most inappropriate, suspicious and raising issues of corruption.”
When you hear ACB Director General Lucas Kondowe talk about his job, you hear the words of a good man who is passionate about what he is doing and is very sure of what it means to be patriotic Malawians who wish this country well
But he still has a long way to go in so far as convincing Malawians about the performance of his Bureau is concerned.
Why is it that it is taking forever to arrest Chaponda after sensationally searching his house and finding stash upon stashes of money amounting to K166 million in various currencies that included the kwacha?
Was that done merely to hoodwink Malawians into believing that the ACB is, after all, doing something about Chaponda after two inquiries recommended action on the former minister?
What about the files that the ACB collected from the Auditor General that emanated from the K577 billion loss of taxpayers’ money under the watch of this DPP administration? And then there is the ESCOM bit; what has happened to it?
Warrants of arrest have been issued about procurement in connection with some top dogs in DPP but they have not been executed. What has happened to them?
Unless ACB in particular, and the government in general, comes clean on these matters, it would be difficult to dismiss the long standing opposition charge that arrests on corruption charges are meant for them and critics of this government.
The question is, when will Chaponda be arrested?
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