A Malawian court on Wednesday gave a two-year jail sentence to a principal secretary earlier suspended for corruption, making him the most senior bureaucrat to be netted in a sweeping anti-graft drive.
High court Judge Richard Chinangwa found Sam Safuli guilty of ”aiding and abetting the theft of public funds”.
Safuli, who was suspended in 2000 as principal secretary in the education ministry, was convicted of corruptly authorising a payment of $1 000 to a building contractor in 1999 despite the contractor’s failure to finish a school construction project.
The judge also sentenced the contractor Esther Kathumba and her husband Hendrix for pocketing the money.
Safuli is the most senior civil servant to be jailed in an ongoing anti-corruption clean-up in the impoverished Southern African state.
He is also allegedly a key figure in another scandal involving the ministry.
The country’s parliamentary public accounts committee found that supporters of former president Bakili Muluzi had been awarded building contracts and the money had been channelled for use in campaigning in the 1999 general elections.
Public sector corruption was rampant during Muluzi’s 10-year tenure, which ended in 2004.
Muluzi was arrested last Thursday on 42 charges of graft but they were dropped this week after his presidential successor and estranged protege Bingu wa Mutharika suspended anti-corruption chief Gustave Kaliwo.
Wa Mutharika, who faced impeachment after breaking away from Muluzi’s party to form his own party last year, has partly blamed his own political woes on the tough stance he has taken against corruption. — Sapa-AFP