Maize corruption cost Malawi $40m
2002-09-07 14:28
Blantyre - Malawi has lost $40 million in the corrupt sale of
maize, a staple food in a country where more than three million
face starvation, a top government official said Saturday.
The figure, supplied by an official from the country's national
audit office who asked not to be named, follows last month's
revelation that 160 000 tonnes of the country's strategic grain
reserves had been mismanaged.
"It was quite a substantial amount of money lost because the
maize was originally bought at a higher price and sold at low
price," the official told AFP.
The irregular sale of maize has been blamed for contributing to
food shortages gripping the country, where 600 000 tonnes of maize
are needed to stave off famine threatening more than three million
people.
President Bakili Muluzi last month sacked Poverty Alleviation
Minister Leonard Mangulama after a report alleged he resold, but
never paid for 300 tonnes of maize when he was still agriculture
minister two years ago.
Other top officials from the state-run grain marketing board
ADMARC have been implicated, including finance minister Friday
Jumbe, formerly ADMARC's general manager.
Malawi's director of public prosecutions has asked the country's
Anti-Corruption Bureau to charge all those involved in the maize
scandal, which has embarrassed Muluzi's government.
- Sapa-AFP
- SAPA