The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has targeted for seizure 80 assets, including office buildings and vehicles believed to be unexplained wealth.

Speaking on Tuesday in Mzuzu on the sidelines of an engagement with civil society organisations (CSOs), ACB director general Martha Chizuma said the bureau has assembled a team of 15 lawyers and investigators who have already started processes of getting preservation orders from the courts before proceeding with forfeitures.

She said: “To get to convictions sometimes takes very long and we have Cashgate cases and one of them has taken 12 years to prosecute. When people talk about corruption cases, they want justice today. There has always been a law on forfeiting or seizing assets that are tainted.

Chizuma: There has always been a law

“Under the Corrupt Practices Act, there is a law on unexplained wealth but also under the new Financial Crimes Act, there is the non-criminal based forfeiture. So, having noted that prosecuting of cases is taking so long, we felt that it is high time we exerted a lot of energies in asset recovery process.”

Chizuma said between 60 and 80 assets are targeted.

The move has excited seasoned prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu who said failure to do this would lead some people to sell the property or give it to relatives which would leave nothing to recover.

In an interview yesterday, he said: “This is the right way. It is in the law and it has always been like that. If you remember the Cashgate cases, every time you get a conviction, you apply to the courts to recover whatever money was lost.

“If you identify the assets at the beginning of the case, you use the Corrupt Practices Act to make restrictions so that people don’t deal with the property until the case is concluded.”

Speaking during the Mzuzu event, Moses Mkandawire from Nyika Institute, who made a public lecture, concurred with Chizuma on asset recovery.

“Litigation contributes about five to 10 percent of the fight against corruption. I am not saying it should be abandoned, but let’s look at other strategies,” he said.

One of the participants, Youth and Society executive director Charles Kajoloweka said the CSOs have not done enough in holding the judiciary accountable.

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