This article first appeared in Times Group Malawi.
Malawi Police Service (MPS) spokesperson Peter Kalaya confirmed the development Tuesday.
“I can confirm that Fiscal Police arrested the 17, but this is an ongoing matter from the Accountant General Department. Investigations are still going on,” Kalaya said.
The arrest of the 17 has brought the total number of public officers arrested in connection with alleged fraud at the AG’s office to 40.
The 17 are expected to appear in court today.
The accountants have been arrested on suspicion that they were getting money from government agencies through allowances.
The Daily Times’ investigations revealed that some officers at the AG’s department were getting more than 40 days of allowances per month.
Commenting on the matter after the initial arrests, Treasury spokesperson Taurai Banda said investigations revealed that some members of staff were involved in dubious transactions.
The facts of the matter are that while working at the Department of Finance and MPS headquarters, they connived with accounts officers from the AG’s office to fraudulently process over K16 million as allowances.
In a related case, in June 2022, Times Group Malawi reported accounting fraud within Accountant General (AG)’s Department in the Ministry of Finance, where accounting personnel have been conniving with accountants from government agencies to siphon money from Account Number One through allowances.
The fraud has seen over 25 accountants from the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, Malawi Defence Force, Malawi Police Service (MPS) and the Judiciary being implicated.
The Times Group Malawi.