BLANTYRE--Ex-MRA chief Llyod Muhara is now a free man, after being cleared of borrowing K14.3 billion from banks to show donors that the government had generated enough revenue to support its programmes when the opposite was the true under the infamous zero deficit budget of late president Bingu wa Mutharika.

According to the Nation, the MRA board cleared Muhara, months after Finance Minister Ken Lipenga was also cleared by a ministerial committee of the same offence.

Lipenga has defended himself that he wasn’t aware of instructions to borrow money to cover up the deal.

 A letter from MRA chair Thomson Mpinganjira to Muhura, quoted by The Nation, said in part:

"The board of directors resolved that you and the rest of the management of MRA were not responsible for the alleged borrowing of funds from commercial banks as widely reported in the media."

Muhura, a lawyer by profession, is expected to walk a rich man: He will be paid his dues till 2013 and the government has shown that it might give him a job.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.