Mutharika defends MK145 million Scandal

President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has come out of his cocoon to defend the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account to which he is a sole signatory where Pioneer Investment donated money amounting to MK145 million.

Speaking in talk to the President programme hosted by Vincent Khonyongwa scheduled to be aired this coming Thursday on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Mutharika said it is normal for him to be the only signatory to a party account.

“It’s nothing unusual. Go to any organization, even private companies in Malawi. You will find that the head of that company is the sole signatory of the company’s account,” Mutharika is quoted as saying.

Mutharika’s remarks have attracted mixed reactions on social media with many questioning his logic on the matter.

Martin Mgwazo Njobvu wrote: “We dont need any proof this guy is chimera. What kind of an organization or company with just a single signatory to it’s financial account?

“Typical of a ‘professor’ with no traceable record of doing research and or publication!”

Concurring with Njobvu’s remarks social commentator Onjezani Kenani questioned Mutharika’s argument.

“Mr President, this is NOT true. Don’t make it sound as if what you did is normal. It is not. Find more convincing ways of laundering your soiled image, not telling us lies that what you did is normal. Having worked for three companies in Malawi, having headed one organization, having sat on the board of another, I never came across ANY situation in which the head of the organization is the sole signatory.

“ There is what we call CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, which forbids exactly this same situation to prevent theft. How come even your own party’s chief executive had no knowledge of the K145 million? She told the nation that the account does not exist, that it is a figment of your detractors’ imagination. And here you are, telling us that it is normal to have an account your party executive has no idea of. You go further to tell us that it is normal anywhere in Malawi to have the head of an organization as a sole signatory,” wrote Kenani.

He added: “I am angry hearing you say so. You take us Malawians for what – dunderheads? The fact, sir, is that that money – I’m talking of the K145 million – came from a fraudulent contract and landed into your personal account, disguised as your party’s account. You actually need to be arrested for money laundering.”