MALAWI SCORES ANOTHER CORRUPTION CONVICTION

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000708 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/S KAMANA MATHUR STATE FOR INR/AA USAID FOR AFR/SA IAN MACNAIRN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM KCOR MI SUBJECT: MALAWI SCORES ANOTHER CORRUPTION CONVICTION 1.(U) Summary: Malawi's High Court recently sentenced the former Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Education (the highest ranking civil servant in the Ministry) to two years in prison after finding him guilty of corruption. This is the first high-profile corruption conviction in over six months, and comes amid controversy over President Mutharika's dismissal of senior prosecutors and the discontinuance of corruption charges against former President Bakili Muluzi. End Summary. A SMALL PART OF A BIG SCAM -------------- 2.(U) Sam Safuli, who was suspended in 2000 as principal secretary, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison SIPDIS with hard labor for authorizing 100,000 kwatcha ($714) worth of construction contract payments for work that was never completed. The High Court also convicted the contractor, his wife, and another Ministry official for graft and document forgery in connection with the case. ¶3. (U) The conviction is a small part of a long-running case popularly known as the "187 Million Kwacha Scam" in which government officials allegedly received kickbacks for construction contracts that were never fulfilled. Vice- President Cassim Chilumpha was implicated in the scam as the then-Minister of Finance, for supposedly authorizing the phony contracts. Chilumpha late last year filed a motion claiming he is immune from prosecution in the case, and is currently awaiting a constitutional court ruling on that question. COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Safuli case indicates that Malawi's anti- corruption effort proceeds apace, even while controversy swirls around President Mutharika's recent suspension of the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and his request for the resignation of the country's chief prosecutor over the discontinuance of the corruption case against former president Muluzi. The conviction serves as a warning to civil servants that malfeasance will be prosecuted, even long after the fact and when the amounts are relatively small. ¶5. (SBU) From Mutharika's public remarks and our conversations with senior officials, it is clear that the president is keen to protect his image as a corruption fighter, and he fully intends to press ahead with Muluzi's case. What is less clear is the degree to which Mutharika respects the independence of Malawi's prosecutors. The Malawi Law Society, the Human Rights Commission and donors have criticized the president for his intervention in the case and the manner in which he handled the dismissal of the prosecutors. The firings have prompted a healthy and necessary debate over the limits of presidential power that has not often been seen in this county's short democratic history, and that discussion will surely continue for some time to come. EASTHAM