Malawi police food ration scam probe completed

Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it has concluded its investigation into the Malawi Police Service food rations scam, notes an Nyasa Times report. ACB director-general Reyneck Matemba said the bureau will decide its ‘next course of action’, noting ‘there is a law which parliament made for the bureau to use in whatever we do’. The report says the anti-graft body has been investigating a Malawi police food supply contract, worth around 2.8bn kwacha (R51.5m), that was awarded to Pioneer Investments, owned by businessman Zameer Karim. The report says when Karim was paid for supplying the 500 000 food ration packs in 2016, he allegedly deposited 145m kwacha (R2.7m) into the governing Democratic Progressive Party’s bank account. Both Karim and the Malawi police’s head of finance, Innocent Bottomani, have denied involvement in the alleged fraud. But DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi said the party will refund the funds deposited into its bank account whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika.