The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it has not found any evidence to suggest that State House inflated figures when making payments for the accommodation of four foreign guests who were booked at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe in July, 2020.
Last year, there were allegation that State House spent K65 million on hotel bills for security trainers staying at Crossroads Hotel. State House was also accused of paying an inflated bill of K225,000 per room for the three experts and an agent identified as Miguel Elias.
A complaint which the ACB received further alleged that a suspicious payment of K12,500,000.00 was made to crossroads Hotel under the name of Miguel Elias of Chitundu Distributors from State House Account.
ACB Principal Public Relations Officer ACB Egrita Ndala said the Bureau conducted investigations which among other things established that there were indeed guests from outside the country that came on invitation of State House in July, 2020. The guests were lodged at Crossroads Hotel
However, the ACB found that there was no inflation of figures by State House on the payments that were made to Crossroads Hotel and that the payment made by Miguel Elias of Chitundu Distributors to Crossroads Hotel for the accommodation did not come from State House Account
“K12,500,000.00 payment was made by State House directly to Crossroads Hotel towards the accommodation costs of the guests
“There was no corruption in the payments that were made to Crossroads Hotel as alleged in the complaint
“The Bureau has found no evidence of wrongdoing and has therefore, closed the case,” the bureau has said in its statement.
Crossroads contradicts itself: We only got K12.5m from State House
