Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee has agreed with the decision of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala to drop charges against Vice President Saulos Chilima.
Recently Chamkakala discontinued a case where Vice President Saulos Chilima was accused of receiving an unspecified sum of money from businessman Zuneth Sattar to potentially influence public contracts in his favor.
However, the committee has resolved that the DPP should restore a case in which Directors of Paramount Holdings Ltd, were charged in connection to government procurement agreements, which was also recently terminated.
The directors, Prakash Virji Ghedia, Arvindikumar Atiti Patel and Surej Khimji Jagatiya were answering charges of making and uttering false documents to get contracts
In Chilima’s case, committee chairperson Peter Dimba stated that they upheld the decision by the DPP because the case involved the Malawi Defence Force (MDF).
Despite being informed that the decision to discontinue the case of Paramount Holdings directors was due to insufficient evidence, Dimba said that the committee felt it wise to have it reinstated.
Last week, a group of civil society organization gave the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)14 days to update Malawians on its stance concerning the terminated cases and reveal the expenses incurred in investigating and prosecuting these issues.
Further, the CSOs want ACB to disclose the amount of money spent on investigating and prosecuting the matters
“Recent events regarding the use of discontinuance powers by the DPP under section 99 of the Republic of Malawi (Constitution) Act 20 of 1994 have raised profound concerns within civil society. We therefore emphasize the urgent need for reforms to protect the integrity of the prosecutorial process,” said Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) executive director Willy Kambwandira
ACB principal public relations officer Egrita Ndala told The Nation that he graft-busting agency was ready to proceed with the case against Chilima.
She said: “The bureau was ready to proceed with the case, but the DPP has overall legal powers to discontinue any criminal matter in the country.”
However, Chamkakala told the same paper that his office consulted ACB before filing an application to discontinue a case against Chilima.
“It’s always good practice to consult all affected institutions in matters like the present one. And of course the office of the DPP and ACB had a consultative meeting before the application was filed with the court. Again, the substance of the consultative meeting was exactly that,” he said
