Malawi arrests former minister, Central Bank Gov for lying to IMF

Malawai police have arrested police arrested a former finance minister and a former central bank chief  for fabricating figures in an attempt to impress the IMF, they said. Joseph Mwanamveka, 57, and former Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Dalitso Kabambe, 48, are accused of having prepared numbers to obtain a loan from the Washington-based crisis and development lender. The two “planned the falsification of gross liabilities and returns on the net reserve base with the intention of leading the International Monetary Fund to believe that the government of Malawi was meeting the conditions related to the extended credit line,” said a statement from police.

When he found out, the IMF suspended the installation, “to the detriment of innocent ordinary Malawians,” he said. Both served under former President Peter Mutharika’s administration from 2014 to 2021. Mutharika lost power to Lazarus Chakwera in re-election in last year’s presidential election, after the courts drastically annulled his initial re-election due to irregularities. Before becoming Finance Minister, Mwanamveka was CEO of the government-owned Malawi Savings Bank, which was sold to a private lender during his tenure. Police said Mwanamveka will also be questioned about the “fraudulent sale” of the savings bank in 2015.

In an unrelated case, a legislator and former local government minister Ben Phiri was also arrested on for fraud and corruption. The three arrests are the most recent by the Chakwera administration, which came to power with promises to fight corruption in one of the world’s poorest nations.

Source Credit: TheGuardian