By Staff Writer:
A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has uncovered massive fraud that took place in Malawi’s foreign embassies from 2013 to 2018.
PAC undertook the exercise to establish how funds are appropriated in foreign embassies after growing speculation of massive misappropriation of funds in most foreign embassies.
From the exercise which PAC undertook, it has been established that there was massive abuse of resources in Malawi’s foreign embassies between the said years.
Presenting the committee’s findings in Parliament, PAC Chairperson who is a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator for Zomba Chisi Mark Bottoman and whose party was in power during the stated period, said most of the fraud involved abuse of Visa and Passport book fees.
“One peculiar case is of Malawian embassy in Tanzania where the whole receipt book went missing and no one can account for it. It is for this reason that the committee calls upon the Secretary to President and Cabinet and Secretary for Foreign Affairs to enforce stringent expenditure measures in foreign missions to avoid a re-occurrence of the same,” said Bottoman while presenting the report in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
The report also established massive fraud in Malawi’s embassies in Zimbabwe, New Dehli in India and Tokyo in Japan.
Coincidentally the committee’s findings are also contained in the auditor’s general report spanning the same period.
In 2021 the South African government ordered for the immediate removal of all Malawian diplomats at the Malawi Embassy in Pretoria after it was discovered that they were abusing their duty-free privilege by among other things exporting luxuries like expensive beers to Malawi.
