By John Ikani
Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has stripped his Vice-President Saulos Chilima of all his delegated powers after the latter was named in a $150m (£123m) corruption scandal involving government contracts.
A probe into procurement fraud by the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) concluded that 53 current and former public officers received money from British-Malawian businessman Zuneth Sattar between March and October 2021, Chakwera said.
This is in relation to 16 contracts that the Malawi Police Service and the Malawi Defence Force awarded to five companies belonging to Mr Sattar.
The officials named in the report include the vice-president and the head of police – who has been sacked.
According to Malawi’s constitution, Chakwera cannot suspend or remove Chilima because he is an elected official.
“The best I can do for now… is to withhold from his office any delegated duties while waiting for the bureau to substantiate its allegations against him,” said Chakwera.
There was no immediate response from Chilima, who partnered with Chakwera to win the 2020 presidential election on an anti-corruption platform.
