Convicted former assistant director for planning and development in the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture, Leonard Kalonga has further implicated Paul Mphwiyo as being at the heart of the cashgate scandal where billions of Malawian Kwachas were siphoned out of the government treasury in a web of over inflated budgets and dodgy payments to dubious companies and individuals exposed in 2013 under Joyce Banda’s presidency.
Kalonga testified to the Lilongwe High Court of how he was lured into the corrupt affair and told how to manouvre funds by Paul Mphwiyo in a serires of clandestine meetings held at the Area 30 Total filling station in Lilongwe.
According to Kalonga, the scheme’s primary objective as narrated to him by Mphwiyo was to raise money for the People’s Party headed by Joyce Banda for the upcoming elections (which Joyce Banda and her People’s Party eventually lost). As a reward for his compliance and execution, Kalonga and others like were promised promotions, postings to diplomatic missions as well as huge cash rewards.
Mphwiyo, Kalonga and others have been charged with conspiracy to defraud government, holding property belonging to government, theft, money laundering, abuse of public office and usage of proceeds of crime.
