An economist from Ministry of Finance, Daniel Jenya has told Lilongwe High Court on Wednesday that he noted excessive Government expenditure beginning first month of Paul Mphwiyo appointment as budget director which led to internal investigations of the cause.
Jenya is another witness of first accused, McDonald Kumwembe a suspected shooter in the ongoing case of attempted murder of Paul Mphiwyo. Kumwembe is answering the case together with former Justice Minister, Raphael Kasambara and Pika Manondo.
The witness told the court that in 2013, he was working in the Ministry at Macroeconomic Policy Unit where he was among others, responsible for, compilation, analysis fiscal tables.
When asked by the first accused on what happened immediately when Paul was appointed as budget director, Jenya said he observed unusual rise in the Government monthly expenditure of below K40 billion exceeding levels in months of July and August alone which raised eyebrows of officials from Ministry of Finance.
He said the expenditure in the month of July unexpectedly went up from below normal expenditure to 55 billion while the month of August it went up to K75 billion.
He testified that, he had at one point spoke to Paul Mphwiyo of the development but his response seem he was as well surprised, but, was quick to question why there was no inflation if Government expenditure had exceeded its ceiling between those months.
He said this forced officials including those from Reserve bank of Malawi, Treasury and Ministry of Finance to hold several meetings in order to determine the cause.
It was through one of the meetings he said, where he learnt that there were huge payments made to the Malawi Defense Force (MDF) and during that meeting Mphwiyo acknowledged such expenditure a development which did not only surprise him knowing that the same Mphwiyo had earlier expressed ignorance of where the expenditure came from but as well that such expenditure was never budgeted for.
Jenya said he learnt from the meeting that the MDF expenditure was for the procurement of equipments for Peace Keeping mission and arms.
However, he pointed out that the meeting agreed that the RBM would send the Treasury and Accountant general, images of cheques above K50 million for the accountant general to reconcile with their expenditures. But he said the images were provided the following day of the meeting and such reconciliation was never done and that the meeting had also raised the issue of porous financial system.
Jenya said he noted from the images of cheques that there were huge payments from Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to International Procurement Services and that in Malawi Defence Force there was several cheques printed on the same dates to the same supplier.
He also told court that at one point it came to be known in the meetings’ that even the Ministry of Information had exceeded its expenditure from appropriated K307 million to K5.3 billion between July and early September.
He said Mphwiyo was shot as the investigations into the expenditure were continuing.
Jenya said he grew suspicious of Paul Mphwiyo appointment as budget director in May for the subsequent immediate and unusual enormous public appraisal about him through media articles yet the post is a low profile.
He also told Court that it surprised him to hear from radio that President Joyce Banda had publicly defended Paul Mphwiyo by pronouncing that the young budget director was possibly shot because his assailants were enraged by his actions of trying hard to seal all financial loopholes in Government, a statement Jenya believes should have either been made by Mphwiyo’s office or the ministry of information.
The second part of the testimony was heard in camera as the Prosecution deemed part of the testimony as sensitive since it involved issues of tenders of supplying arms to Malawi Defense Force.
Another Government officer who happened to be Jenya's boss Mr. Juwawo also his testimony was heard in camera.
