Some Malawians working in diaspora have sounded an outcry over the widespread looting of public resources in the country saying that the trend is affecting their integrity where they work.
In an interview, Joyce Nyirongo, a Malawian accountant in Canada disclosed that her workmate always treat her as a suspect, given stories that most Malawians are thieves.
According to Joyce, her managers keep on warning that should any of the workers get caught in any misappropriation of funds, they would rot in jail.
“These stories are disgusting. They don’t end there. Mind you, most people read in the press what happens back home. Each time they read about people stealing or doing anything against the grains, they end up classifying every Malawian as possessed by such evil,” she said.
“It is really bad,” lamented George Soko, Malawian cashier at a company in Switzerland. “Those stories are detrimental to us working in diaspora. Our integrity is put to question. We’re never trusted.”
Malawi is always on international press with negative stories, ranging from thuggery to rape, corruption and political unrest.
The country got its Independence in 1964 but has achieved no pointable development is ranked low on economic development with about 90% of the citizenly living below $1 a day.
Since attaining self-rule and democracy in 1964 and 1994 respectively, the country has always been ranked high on corruption index due to the widespread looting of public funds, mostly, by politicians and technocrats.
The first democratic president of the country, Bakili Muluzi, is suspected to have siphoned over MK1 billion from the public coffers during his tenure that spanned for ten years from 1994.
His successor, late Bingu wa Mutharika, is suspected, also, to have thieved from the poor Malawian coffers enormously.
The third democratic president, Joyce Banda’s administration saw public looting reaching it’s pinnacle when the government pool of funds, account number 1, turned free for all.
Politicians, senior government officials and everyone who had access to it looted billions of Kwachas at the expense of the poor taxpayers.
Similar stories have carried on from Peter Mutharika administration to the newly Lazarus Chakwera administration when people have gone overboard to thieve MK6.2 billion that was meant for Coronavirus combat.
Among notable ‘thieves’ mentioned in the audit report include ministers, technocrats and other government officials.
President Lazarus Chakwera, on Sunday, lamented the mastery of public thievery, describing it as retrogressive.
He stressed that his administration will see to it that everyone involved in the scam will face the law.
