LILONGWE—Long before April 5 when the names of Patricia Kaliati, Goodall Gondwe, Symon Vuwa Kaunda were all mentioned in the same sentence as part of an inner circle of the former ruling party that tried to install the late President Bingu wa Mutharika’s brother as president instead of Vice Pres Joyce Banda, the three were suspected of involvement in corruption but their cases never got anywhere.

The Banda administration wants to see movement in the cases against the former ministers. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigated the cases but it’s believed to have sat on them because the three were prominent people.  

A source said if the ACB doesn’t take action by week’s end, the Director of Public Prosecutions, which believes there is enough evidence, will take over the cases and former finance minister Goodall Gondwe should explain his alleged involvement in a K20 million Ministry of Finance Credit Scheme Account.

Former Information Minister Symon Vuwa Kaunda who is on record saying a phone company tried to give him a K5 million bribe will be expected to tell why he never told authorities about it.

And Patricia Kaliati will have to answer a case related to the Nyika-Vwaza Concession when she was tourism minister.

Last month, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Ralph Kasambara told The Nation the government respects the independence of the ACB but it was keeping an eye on the status of cases involving high profile individuals.

Kasambara told the daily he’d been briefed by DPP Rosemary Kanyuka that she’d given a green light on some case files including those of Kaliati and Gondwe.

"We believe the [ACB] director is doing the needful, but if the matters are prolonged further, and by the end of this month, nothing is done, then the office of the DPP will be asked to prosecute the matters," the attorney general said.

MaraPost sought the view of Kaliati over the issue and she didn’t hide her frustrations, saying the case against her was politically motivated.

“I am tired of this,” she said. “Let them throw me into the lake!”

Gondwe and Kaunda couldn’t be reached.
---
©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.