A traditional leader and a Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson in Nsanje have been sentenced to three years in jail for stealing public funds by using ghost workers.
The two have been identified as Useni Pensulo who is also Village Headman Alufandika and Rashid Mamani who is the VDC leader.
According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), on 23rd November, 2015, they received a complaint alleging that thirty people only were working on a Local Development Fund (LDF) funded project which was supposed to be carried out by one hundred while the other seventy were ghost workers.
“The ACB instituted investigations and established that Village Headman Alufandika and Mamani connived to include the ghost workers on the list of villagers to work on a project to construct a canal from the Shire River to Tikondane Irrigation Scheme,” the bureau’s senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala said.
On 26th January, 2017, the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested the two who were then charged with uttering a false document, theft and misuse of office.
On Tuesday, Nsanje Magistrate’s Court convicted the two on all the three counts. They were sentenced to thirty six months imprisonment for misuse of public office, 18 months for uttering a false document and twelve months for theft. The sentences are expected to run concurrently.
