Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested the country’s Vice President Saulos Chilima over corruption allegations, it said on Friday.
Chilima is accused of accepting money and other items in
exchange for awarding government contracts, the ACB said in a statement.
The vice president would be taken to court where he is
expected to be charged with three counts of corrupt practices by a public
officer, among other charges, the corruption watchdog added.
Footage from local media showed supporters of Chilima and the
police seemingly in a scuffle as he was being taken into court for the formal
reading of charges.
“I have no comment to make. We will let the court process
run its course,” Chilima told reporters outside court after being granted bail,
according to media.
The ACB statement said Chilima was rewarded for assisting
Xaviar Limited and Malachitte FZE, two companies linked to British businessman
Zuneth Sattar, to win contracts.
The watchdog has been investigating Sattar and other public
officers in Malawi over alleged plundering of state resources by influencing
awarding of contracts through the country’s public procurement system, it said.
The ACB arrested Chilima “on allegation that between March
2021 and October 2021, he received advantage in form of money” amounting to
$280,000 and other items “from Zuneth Sattar as a reward”, its statement said.
In August, the Financial Times reported that Sattar was
under investigation by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) over
alleged abuse of Malawi’s public procurement system. He had not been charged
with any offence and denied wrongdoing, the report said.
NCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
Friday, and Sattar could not be reached, the Reuters news agency said.
Earlier this year, Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera
dissolved his entire cabinet on charges of corruption against three serving
ministers. Several ministers and former ministers have already been arrested in
connection with this case, in which 53 public officials have been accused of
receiving money from Sattar between March and October 2021.
In June this year, Chakwera stripped Chilima of all powers
after the latter was first named in corruption allegations by the ACB.
According to Malawi’s constitution, the president could not suspend or remove
Chilima because he was an elected official. Aljazeera
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