Cashgate Case: Lawyer Refuse Comment On Katengeza 5yr Sentence As State Express Excitement

Katengeza

Lawyer for Angela Katengeza, Gilbert Khonyongwa, says he needs more time to go through the ruling made on Tuesday before making his comment to press.

Katengeza who was answering to Money laundering of K105 million in 2013 was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment by Lilongwe High Court justice Fiona Mwale.

Asked to comment on the verdict, Khonyongwa said he need ample time to look at the judgment and after he will make his position.

Khonyongwa

“As of now I could not comment much until I go through it at my own time and then determine my position on that.” He said adding that his client will decide on whether to appeal the ruling or not but that will be after they go through the ruling

Several mitigation factors that defense submitted to court were refused. Reacting to this Khonyongwa conceded that the court has authority to consider or to disregard the mitigation factors.

“In terms of the law the court has the final discretion how it handles the sentence. So, from its analysis it has decided to ignore some of the mitigation factors. So that is the position of the court” he conceded

Saidi

Meanwhile, the state has welcomed the court verdict of 5 year prison sentence to Angela Katengeza 

Imran Saidi a state advocate described the verdict by Justice Fiona Mwale as an indication that justice is still taking its course in the country.

“Beyond what the Court has found we wouldn’t have any comment but I think that is a reflection of justice that it is still taking its course in our land.” He said

Judge indicated that Katengeza was supposed to serve a total of six years inprisonment but because of old age and health problems of the convict, one year has been deducted to make the sentence be at 5 years. 

Commenting on this reduction Saidi said “As I said, it is the Court discretion that when it is sentencing there are a lot of circumstances and matters that it puts into considerate on. It is our view and belief that at least what the court found by deduction one year, it is still in order.”

On the ongoing and future cashgate cases he said “This is a positive development. As a state we have always relied upon court duty and the way courts conduct its activities. It is a reflection to the effect that at least the justice is still prevailing and we believe that will still send a signal to the rest of the other offenders probably it is high time that they can make decision of coming forward to plead guilty and probably surrender whatever they acquired from our state coffers.”

Cashgate Case: Katengeza Gets 5 Year Jail Sentence, Tells Judge 'Just Kill Me'

Relatives shielding her from Journalists 

Angela Katengeza les but all that ended when Justice Fiona Mwale punished her with 5 year jail sentence.

In protest of the judges’ custodial sentence immediately after hearing the judgment, Katengeza reacted by shouting "Just kill me, just kill me” and continued “God of Joseph, God of Isaac, what have I done!" and began to cry uncontrollably.

Arrival at the court where she was allowing
Journalists to take her pictures 

On 14th March 2016, Katengeza was convicted and found guilty of Money Laundering contrary to Section 35 (1)(c) of Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorism Financing Act. She was originally charged alongside with her son Gordon Hamdani who was acquitted after the state discontinued case against him and Leonard Kalonga who was discharged after he separately pleaded guilty to various offensesrom the case, after state had paraded four witnesses.

Katengeza was answering to money laundering of K105 million a crime that was committed in 2013 when she had lend out her Faith Construction company certificate to another cashgate convict Leonard Kalonga former Deputy Director for then, Ministry of Tourism.

According to Katengeza, that time Kalonga wanted to use her company certificate with bank accounts to bid construction tenders that were available at the Ministry but could not use his own certificates because of employment policies.   

After giving the certificate to Kalonga, her bank account began to receive payments from Government which accumulated to a total of K105 million and Katengeza admitted that she in separate occasions began to withdraw the money and hand delivered to Kalonga. 

In all these dealings, however, Katengeza disclosed that she only received K3 million covering renewal fee of her company certificate and costs of transport and airtime during the process of withdrawing and handing over the money to Kalonga. 

She was promised 10 percent commission at the end of the deal but that did not happen because the cashgate scandal investigations began much earlier before the deal was over.

Katengenza has throughout the trial maintained no guilty plea citing that Kalonga used her to defraud Government and that she was not part of the Government officers who masterminded the cashgate.

Family members crying outside court

 

Money Laundering attracts maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and fine of K2 million.

Announcing the verdict, Justice Fiona Mwale indicated that six years of imprisonment matches actual level of her benefit and margin of her mitigating factor in the commission of the offense.

But said; “I do however recognize her age and her heart condition and I deduct one year from that sentence.” then continued “The convict is therefore to serve 5 years imprisonment in the offense of money laundering” 

Immediately, Katengeza shouted; “Just kill me, I don’t have to bear such hard life again”, as she continued to shout the judge also continued to deliver the judgment of which is allowing the convict the right to lodge an appeal.

Family members also joined in with cries followed by loud murmuring in the public gallery side showing their disapproval of such a lengthy sentence. The murmuring were so loud in the courtroom making the end part of the judgment that the Justice Mwale was still presenting to be inaudible.

Earlier, the judge said suspended sentence was not suitable in this particular case considering various reasons she highlighted in her verdict that includes the negative economic impact cashgate brought to the country.

Justice Mwale in her verdict refused to take into consideration some of mitigating factors that were presented by defense during sentencing submissions. Among the factors include; cooperation, good character, length of the trial which has taken three years, on remorse since she refused to admit her responsibility of theft by maintaining no guilty plea, failure to make restitution and on the K3 million amount that she benefited out of K105 million.

But on K3 million benefits, the judge argued that although Katengeza got K3 million from K105 million she benefited from the proceeds and that she never made restitution. Justice Mwale futher mentioned that still the convicts actions of lending out her company certificate to Leonard Kalonga helped to facilitate the laundering of Government money that “could have been utilized at material time towards realization of the national budget.”

“What is relevant at this time is that she facilitated the theft of K105 million… I find that as a serious crime.” insisted the Judge adding “K3 million is still substantial amount of money” 

“The sum laundered is however, one that is quite high, as I alluded earlier and I keep reiterating that K105 million nine hundred and eighty three thousand is quite high.” She said and further counter argued defense position by saying “In money laundering charges, it is the sum that has been laundered” matters most

The judge also noted with concern failure by state to highlight impact of cashgate during their sentencing submissions.

Outside the court, Katengeza was crying and continued to shout "I don't deserve this life anymore!" 

Katengeza arrival 

Now 55 year old Katengeza was a theological college student and Area 47 block leader when the theft was happening and was consecrated as Eleventh Hour church pastor in 2014 upon completion of her first degree in theology. 

Defense submitted that Katengeza who is a first offender and a person of good character was a very active person in church ministry and her arrest came when she was about to open a church branch in Mtsiriza.

Her Faith Construction operated for a period of 5 years and it was common among construction companies to borrow from each others company certificate.

Water Should Be A 'Right' In Malawi -CSR, Tearfund

Making water a ‘right’ will make Malawi achieve the goal of allowing citizens enjoy full access to clean and safe water says Centre for Social Research (CSR) and Tearfund.

The two institutions through the Climate Justice project funded by Scottish Government are highlighting challenges that the country continues to face in the water sector due to absence of legislation that can form basis for stakeholders in the sector to hold Government accountable on provision of water to every corner of the country.

“In the two projects that we are working on it’s very clear that the water sector is not doing very well.” observes CSR Deputy Director, Prof. Blessings Chinsinga

“One of the reasons that we found is that water is not designated as a right, as a result the stakeholders that are active in this sector do not have a firm basis to hold the Government accountable.” He said

Painting the picture of the water situation in the country, Chinsinga indicated that on paper, Malawi's water coverage is 84 percent but on the ground, water access is far much lower estimated to be between 50 to 60 percent. He said this is the case because most existing water facilities like boreholes that were drilled in the villages are not functional.

“At any given time we have only about 30 to 50 percent of these water facilities functioning.” noted Chinsinga adding that this is clear indication that there is a big problem in the water sector

He narrated that in some areas people particularly women are forced to walk more than two kilometers to fetch clean water from boreholes while some gets water from unprotected sources mostly from rivers and wells.

He then challenged that the problem of access to water will remain, unless, water is recognized as a right.

“Therefore we feel that if water was to be legislated as a right then maybe, Government would in a special way be forced to make sure that performance in the water sector is improved through adequate funding.” He emphasized

The CSR and Tearfund have embarked on policy dialogue on the basis of projects they are implementing within the framework of Climate Justice with purpose of engaging with and stimulate debate among key stakeholders on water as a ‘right.’

Recently, the two institutions had a policy dialogue with Members of Parliament (MPs) with ultimate goal of creating a critical mass of MPs so as to forge a long term partnership with CSR and Tearfund to popularize the Climate Justice perspective to dealing with issues of quality water access and climate change issues in Malawi. 

During the engagement, Prof. Chinsinga urged legislators to consider enforcing the existing pieces of policies and legislation on water including the policy commitment by Government that it will provide water within 500 meter radius.

2016-2017 Budget: This is IMF Budget - MCP

Goodall Gondwe: Finance Minister 

The K1.136 Trillion Budget presented on Friday for the 2016/17 fiscal year has been described as “IMF budget” and “unrealistic” for how Malawi has projected to raise its domestic resources.

Total revenue and grants are estimated at K965.2 billion where 80.3% of this will be domestically generated while 19.7 percent will represent donor grants.

Malawi Congress Party spokesperson on finance in National Assembly, Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi reacted that Malawians will suffer much through tax revenues as the budget intends to raise 80.3% using domestic resources while as Peoples Party (PP) spokesperson on finance, Ralph Jooma described this years budget as Unrealistic and feared that the budget will be marred with excessive borrowing.

Dzonzi said this will result into real hardships among Malawians and predicted possible high interest rates in commercial banks that will scare entrepreneurs from borrowing there by reducing their production and affect the economy. 

2016-2017 Budget: Estimates At K1.136 Trillion

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has told National Assembly that this 2016-2017 Financial Year Government will spent a total amount of K1, 136.4 billion (One Trillion, One Hundred and Thirty Six Billion point Four)

This total expenditure and net lending during this year represents 26.1 percent of nominal GDP.

It also represents an increase of 23.9 percent over the 2015-2016 revised expenditure of K902.3 billion.

Among others this budget will allocate K198.5 Billion to the Ministry of Agriculture, which is the highest allocation of resources for this year, and K147.6 Billion for Ministry of Education and K9.8 Billion for the Ministry of Health.

This large allocation to Agriculture comes at a time when the Government has resolved to intensify irrigation farming in order to transform the economy from the excessive dependence on rain-fed agriculture, as a lasting solution to the challenge of climate change.

"The move will also increase the number of harvests per year to more than the current single harvest. This could substantially increase the country’s rate of economic growth." indicated Gondwe

He mentioned that the large scale farming will be intensified through Green Belt Initiative and that Government has decided to formally establish the Greenbelt Authority (GBA) as a stand-alone public agency.

"The authority will be the official agent for the construction of these largescale irrigation infrastructural projects throughout the country in line with the Government’s Irrigation Masterplan, while small-scale irrigation projects will continue to be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development." He said

"Accordingly, the Treasury has established Vote 078 to allocate resources for the administrative and operational expenses of the authority with immediate effect. This will be part of the 2016/17 budget. The large-scale irrigation infrastructure projects will be part of the Government’s development programme." He assured

Of the projected K1.136 trillion, recurrent expenditure will be MK815.5 billion or 18.7 percent of GDP, which is higher than the 2015/16 allocation by 16.8 percent.

According to Gondwe, the Development expenditure will increase by 57.0 percent from MK217.5 billion to MK317.4 billion, or 7.3 percent of GDP.

"Up to K279.8 billion or 82.2 percent of the development budget will be provided by development partners through loans and grants, while local resources will account for the balance of K37.6 billion or 11.8 percent. Therefore, the donor contribution to the development programme is anticipated to increase by 62.0 percent relative to 2015/16." He said

The total revenue and grants during the 2016/17 fiscal year are estimated at K965.2 billion or 22.2 percent of nominal GDP.

Of this amount, some K708.8billion will be tax revenue, K66.0 billion will be non-tax revenue, while K190.4billion will be grants from Malawi's cooperating partners.

"Thus, MK774.8 billion or 80.3 percent of these resources will be domestically generated, while the remaining 19.7 percent will represent donor grants. " he said the Finance Minister

He went on "Compared with the 2015/16 revised budget, tax revenues are projected to increase by 21.8 percent, reflecting the fact that nominal GDP, which is the base for most of the taxes, will grow by 24.0 percent. Tax on income and profits will account for 55.4 percent of total tax revenue, while tax on goods and services will generate 37.2 percent." He said but noted that non-tax revenue is shown to be lower relative to the 2015/16 revised budget estimate of K71.9 billion.

Gondwe mentioned that three key factors and priorities were taken into account when preparing the 2016-2017 budget.

He named the key considerations as putting reflection of agreement between Government and IMF within the context of seventh and eighth reviews of Extended Credit Facility arrangement; assumptions that macroeconomic outlook for the next financial year, where the real GDP growth is projected at 5.1 percent while nominal GDP will grow by 24.0 percent and that the average inflation rate in 2016/17 is projected reach 17.4

The other key consideration was that based on the Government’s short and medium-term policy priorities which are motivated by the objective of ensuring that the country maintains a program with the IMF, while addressing some pressing socio-economic challenges.

On maintaining IMF programme and addressing socio-economic problems, Gondwe therefore indicated that the budget seeks to increase domestic resource mobilization; make available adequate resources for maize procurement, and to support irrigation farming; to ensure that the wage bill is maintained below 7 percent of nominal GDP; and to ensure that resource allocations to the health, education and other critical social sectors remain adequate and a significant proportion of the budget.

2016-2017 Budget: K35.5 Billion For Food Purchase

Government has announced that the 2016/2017 Budget has allocated K35. 5 billion for the purchase of food response.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Goodall Gondwe has announced today when presenting the 2016/2017 Budget estimates.

"Of this amount, MK6.0 billion is in support of the winter cropping initiative to purchase maize from large scale farmers through contract farming." He indicated  

"The total allocation for maize procurement is additional be pleased to note that development partners cooperating under the Multi-Donor Trust Fund in Agriculture have indicated that they may provide additional resources specifically in support of winter cropping." Said Gondwe

He said ADMARC is also purchasing local maize for immediate sales with support provided through Government guarantees for ADMARC to borrow from commercial banks to purchase food for sales to the public.

Hon. Gondwe mentioned that the U.K. and the ADB already pledged their support in response to President Peter Mutharika's disaster call and that United States Government has already pledged support amounting to about US$63 million for humanitarian food assistance, which will be managed by the World Food Program (WFP). In addition he said the ADB has also pledged US$18 million.

He said other support for food crisis will come from Chinese Government who pledged over US$9 million and from the Japanese Government of US$7 million.

But he noted that the IMF has also provided support amounting to US$49 million through the Augmentation of Access facility, which allows the Government to borrow more money from the Reserve Bank of Malawi specifically for this purpose. He added that the World Bank currently conducting a post disaster needs assessment in the country, to determine their level of support through the Crisis Response Window facility a facility that was used by the World Bank to provide support amounting to US$80 million in response to the flood disaster of 2014/15.

Gondewe also mentioned that through resource support from European Union and the World Bank, each district has been allocated with K500 million in this financial year towards Public Works Programme in order to boost rural income among smallholder farmers in rural areas to enable the buy food. He noted that it is clear that people in rural areas have had drastically reduced agricultural production due to the drought, and that their incomes have also been reduced.

The second round crop estimates recently released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development showed that maize production during the 2015/16 growing season has declined by an estimated 12.4 percent relative to production in 2014/15. 

Maize production has been estimated at 2.4 million metric tons. It is estimated that the country requires an additional 790,000 metric tons of relief food to support an estimated 8.4 million people. An additional 250,000 metric tons is required for sale in ADMARC markets, while another 250,000 metric tons is required to restock the strategic grain reserves.

Get 2016-2017 Budget Statement here 

Khumbo Asks Chaponda To Have Listening Ear

Former Vice President and Member of Parliament for Mzimba South West, Khumbo Kachali has asked Government Ministers to listen to constructive views being suggested by some opposition legislators in ongoing National Assembly Meeting.

Kachali was reacting to Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda's outburst when Chitipa North legislator James Munthali said the agriculture minister has failed in his duties for not starting now the implementation of some of the measures that the ministry has put in place to avert hunger.

The former Agriculture Minister Hon James Munthali member for Chitipa North asked why Government has not started distribution of Treadle pumps, seeds and fertilizers now to avert hunger other than to wait, because the water is still available so that people can start to utilize this.

George Chaponda, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development also Leader of House responded with rants  by outburstly reminded Munthali that he as former agriculture minister failed during his time to rescue Malawians from hunger situation and that even maize rotten at National Food Reserve Agency when Malawians were facing hunger.

Mzimba South West Legislator, former Vice President, Khumbo Hastings Kachali who took the floor on point of order asked Chaponda to listen to views and not being political.

“So, it was unfortunate for the sitting Minister of Agriculture instead of taking note of the friendly advice he actually was saying no, why couldn’t you do it when you were in Government." noted Kachali in an interview 

"My concern was, we in opposition we have to give constructive ideas. And this was an idea from former minister of Agriculture. Instead of taking note and going back to the drawing board and say yes indeed we are late. But the sitting minister of agriculture is talking politics.” lamented Kachali

So, he said "that is what made me to stand up and say no, Government is a continuous process, and the challenges that we are facing now they are not only challenges for those members that are in the Government but for Malawians that is both in Government and in opposition."

He continued "Malawians are suffering; this time around there is no food, so we all have to bang our heads and find solution and here is an advice a solution let us start now. So my humble request is Government should also listen when opposition members are giving advice.”

He then hoped that his fellow cabinet ministers should advise Dr. Chaponda to have a listening ear and begin to take advices.