Running to standstill: reflections on the cashgate scandal heist in Malawi

In September, 2013 following a police tip, a Malawi government accounts clerk was found with huge sums of cash amounting to $ 300, 000.00 in his car and a week later Malawi’s Budget Director (Treasury Official) was fatally shot outside his home. These two incidents unraveled what would later be famously known as the ‘Cashgate Scandal’ that led to government being defrauded of $ 32 Million representing almost 1% of Malawi’s annual GDP in merely six months. This led to withdrawal of budgetary support from donors. A lot of people were arrested some with a lot of cash in local and foreign currency. An independent audit report by Baker Tilly, a British Accountancy Firm revealed that the theft with such sophistication of issuing cheques to private companies for services that had not been rendered to government. Later those cheques were cashed and money distributed among several people. Those arrested were charged with offences ranging from corruption, abuse of office, theft, theft by public servant and money laundering. This article analyses the first conviction of these cashgate case series. This also happens to be the first ever conviction on money laundering offence in the country. It explores the opportunities that have been lost and likely stifling implications on the future of corruption and money laundering offences in Malawi. The prosecution and the courts as actors have that duty to clarify and implement the common interests of Malawians, namely the prescriptive purposes of the law in accordance with the expectations of an approximate process that guarantees attainment of human good i.e. justice.