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
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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
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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