By Cedric Nkungula
President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says where evidence is available, he will claim back all the resources that have been siphoned out of the country to foreign nations through corrupt transactions.
Chakwera stated this while speaking at the opening of a two – day national anti – corruption conference under the theme, ‘resetting the nation’s moral tone’ on Monday at Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre.
In his remarks, Chakwera said Malawi will no longer accept corruption and illicit theft of its resources in any form saying gone are the days where scramble for Africa was an acceptable crime.
“We have had our resources externalized to the United Kingdom through procurement fraud. We have had our gold externalized to the United Arab Emirates and China through export fraud. We have had our precious rubies externalized to the United States through mining fraud,” emphasized Chakwera.
“This kind of plunder of our country is no longer going to be tolerated from anybody from any country and where we find evidence of our resources being externalized illegally to another country, we are going to demand those resources to be returned to us.”
Chakwera said he has since directed Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) to initiate the process of reactivating Malawi’s membership in Open Government Partnership in order to raise the level of accountability across government in using international tools and standards in the fight against corruption.
“Malawi’s membership in the Open Government Partnership became inactive under the previous administration and we will soon have a road map to see it reactivated by the end of this year. This is in recognition of the fact that we need the support of the international community in our quest for good governance because so much of the plunder against our nation involves international transactions and the externalization of our resources,” he emphasized.
Chakwera advised delegates to the two day event to come up with new approaches to fight corruption.
He also called on the delegates to define the role of each and every stakeholder in the fight against corruption.
Speaking earlier, Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo said his ministry has put in place measures that are aimed at strengthening the legal framework in the fight against corruption one of which being the establishment of a financial crimes court.
He said the court amendment bill to facilitate the establishment of the special court will be tabled in the current sitting of parliament.
