Joyce Banda responds to Mutharika ‘Do your work’

This time around the ex Malawi President Joyce Banda, has only chosen to take President Peter Mutharika to some background work she did in office, even despite Mutharika failing to recognize her at international conferences.

Mutharika is on record several times as having criticized Banda for among other things selling the country’s presidential jet and ‘spearheading’ the public looting of public resources, a scandal christened Cashgate.

Even in his recent address of the media on his United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Mutharika who angrily turned down reports he took along with a whole lot of a village, claimed that he had found the country in a mess and that he is still trying to restore the lost glory he believes the country had before Banda became President.

Mutharika also stepped on Banda’s toes by saying that she had let donors stop assisting the country because of her negligence to stop corruption.

But Joyce Banda in reaction to Mutharika’s remarks that she is the cause of the economic woes that have clumped Malawi now, she has only managed to drill the Malawi leader on some core issues that need to be dealt with and not castigating her all time.

A statement which Banda presented to Council on Foreign Relations, who also hinted that she was not coming back to Malawi anytime soon because of political arrests that await her hinted that it remains paramount for Mutharika to do his job and not talk bad about her.

She maintained that Mutharika’s remarks gave a bad reflection of the work she did when she held the same post.

” President Mutharika failed to acknowledge that I am the first Head of State in Malawi to take bold steps to fight corruption and staunch theft of public resources. I publicly stated that there was a problem of theft and corruption since 2005 when the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) was installed and rallied everyone to jump on board to deal with it once and for all. I personally and aggressively led the fight against theft, fraud and corruption.”

“When the European Union (EU) Head of Delegation, Alexander Baum, alerted me about loopholes in the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), I announced on September 7, 2013 the introduction of measures to seal all IFMIS loopholes to root out theft, fraud and corruption. My government drew up a comprehensive work plan to deal with corruption and plunder of public resources. The plan was subject to regular review by a Cabinet Committee, which was headed by the Minister of Good Governance, Chris Daza.”

On igniting of audits to the corruption that hit the nation, Banda stated “My government initiated a forensic audit into Cashgate. I shall forever be grateful to the British Government for its provision of resources to enable us to engage an internationally-renowned audit firm, Baker Tilly, to conduct the forensic audit. The Baker Tilly audit report was released on October 30, 2014. It included the names of the people involved in Cashgate. It is a public document .”

As if this was not enough Banda, who lost to Mutharika in a disputed poll last year expressed concern that Mutharika does not show interest to expedite an audit into an alleged 577 billion Kwacha ‘Cashgate’ that occurred between 2009 and 2012 before she came into office.

“Just like the British Government provided financial support for a forensic audit during my time, the German Government has committed money to facilitate a forensic audit by Price Waterhouse into this financial scandal. However, President Mutharika’s government has shown no interest to expedite the audit.”

“Recently, robbers broke into a German envoy’s house in (city) where documents containing information about the 577 billion Kwacha forensic audit were stolen. In the midst of the outcries, a senior Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) official, Issa Njaunju, was brutally murdered in early July 2015. Since that time, no concrete investigations have been carried out.” adds Banda’s statement.

There has been a verbal attacks on Banda from government to officials.

At some point, ex Minister of Information and Civic Education, Kondwani Nankhumwa publicly claimed that Banda ‘mysterious’ killed late President Bingu wa Mutharika for her to ascend to the post in 2012, two years before she lost the post.