Parliament of Malawi has instituted an inquiry to investigate Alliance Capital Limited, a company in which people invested and lost billions of Kwachas.
This was disclosed in Parliament yesterday after a member of Parliament for Dedza Central East Joshua Malango brought the matter in Parliament to find out what the Government of Malawi is doing on this matter.
According to Malango, he is suspecting some criminal activities to have taken place in this whole issue and he would like the Government of Malawi to come and help in those who have lost a lot of money to recover their money.
In his remarks, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said Malawians needs to know on what really happened at Alliance Capital and how the money was lost and inquiry committee will do that to find out what really happened.
He then added that the issue of Alliance Capital is very sad and the investigation must be speedy to establish what really happened.
“Alliance Capital was established in 2004 changed name in 2006 as operated by some time, got suspended in two years ago by the Reserve bank of Malawi but when it was being suspended a lot of mess had been created and some are estimating to the tune of 60 Billion Malawi Kwacha that is money from Malawians some big others small and I think Malawians do deserve through their representatives here in Parliament to go down to the real issues on where did we lose it, do we really need to strengthen our laws why did we miss why did it take so long.
“All those issues can easily be answered by Parliament because Parliament has powers to summon and they can get as much information from whosoever they want to get it from and it will help Parliament strengthen the regulatory regime in issues like these ones because investments must be protected,” explained Gwengwe.
Gwengwe thanked the Court for really being speedy with their decision on the issue but he noted that the inquiry has to be done to find out what really happened because the inquiry is going to give a lot of information regarding this issue.
“The question still arises in terms of this company has been around for so long and the inquiry is going to give us a lot more information of what happened, when and who was doing that and why did it take so long for institution like Financial Intelligence Authority, the Reserve Bank itself to act.
“Why did we act 2 years ago when we would have acted long time ago and protected people’s money? is it a law? is it the individual? is not caring or is it a syndicate all those thing are going to be answered once the commission finishes the inquiry,” said Gwengwe.
Gwengwe also revealed that Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda and Director of Public Prosecution Dr Steven Kayuni have already stepped in for preliminary investigations to establish if there was any criminal activity that have led to the company’s downfall.
On Friday, High Court Commercial Division ordered that Alliance Capital be liquidated and this was coming at a time individuals and institutions had already lost about K60 billion which they invested in the company.
Among those to have lost are; Malawi Police SACCO which lost K1 billion, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) which lost K800 million, Malawi Revenue Authority -MRA that lost K1 billion and Export Development Fund that is said to have lost K7 billion.
A joint Parliamentary Committee consisting of Public Accounts Committee, Legal affairs committee and Trade and Industry committee has been set to inquire into the matter.
