Former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Henry Mathanga has been granted bail after he was arrested on accusations that he was involved in falsifying financial figures which were presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mathanga was arrested yesterday after he surrended himself to Malawi Police. Today, he appeared before Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court where he was granted bail.
Magistrate Patrick Chirwa ordered Mathanga to pay one million Kwacha cash bond, produce two reliable sureties bonded at five million Kwacha each and to surrender his travel documents.
Mathanga worked at RBM for 37 years before his resignation last year which he tendered on the basis that he had been “constructively dismissed” by the bank.
His arrest comes months after former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor Dalitso Kabambe and former Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha were also arrested in December last year over a similar offence.
Malawi Police said the two were suspected to have procured the commission of an offence of fraudulent false accounting contrary to section 335(A) of the penal code.
“The two, while serving as Minister of Finance and Reserve Bank Governor respectively procured and masterminded the falsification of Gross Liability and Net Reserve Base Returns with intent to make the International Monetary Fund believe that the Government of Malawi was meeting conditions connected to the extended credit facility. As a result of this scheme IMF suspended the said extended credit facility to the prejudice of innocent ordinary Malawians,” Police said.
