Malawi is failing to repatriate millions of Kwacha and thousands of dollars emanating from Visa fees, as the money is stuck at the embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, The Daily Times has established.
As at the end of the 2020-21 financial year, the Malawi embassy had failed to remit to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services about K104.58 million as well as forex amounting to $15,170.
The money was expected to be deposited in Malawi Government Account Number 1.
This came to light when officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by Principal Secretary (Legal) Mary Kachale, appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) of Parliament last week to answer queries regarding embassies.
Among other things, committee members wanted to know why the embassy in Addis Ababa failed to remit the funds after they were duly collected.
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“The observation by the Auditor General that the Malawi Mission in Addis Ababa had not been remitting funds to Account Number 1 is accurate. Whilst the anomaly is regrettable, I would like to report that revenue collected at the Malawi Mission at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia could not be externalised due to that country’s rigorous fiscal policies.
“Consequently, funds in Addis Ababa are accumulating in the deposit account, which is only spent with the express approval of the Secretary to the Treasury,” Kachale said.
Ironically, during the same period, the Treasury has been sending forex to the embassy for its operations.
Chitipa East lawmaker Kezzie Msukwa wondered if Ethiopians are able to send money from Malawi to Addis Ababa.
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“If they can’t send our money from there, can there be an eye for an eye [solution]?” Msukwa said.
Pac Chairperson Mark Botoman also wondered as to whether the situation has improved lately.
He demanded to know if there have been diplomatic negotiations with the Ethiopian government to address the problem.
Kachale told committee members that the situation has not changed.
“The Ethiopian government has its own rules— which are rigid. That is why the only remedy now is that those funds are handled with the understanding that they belong to Malawi Government Account Number 1.
“Therefore those funds are not in any manner accessed unless Treasury is approached for authority,” Kachale said.
She observed that it was hard to reciprocate the treatment because the Ethiopian government does not have an embassy in Malawi and that the operating embassy for Malawi is in Zambia.
Machinga North East lawmaker Ajilu Kalitendere wondered as to whether the Malawi Embassy is being funded from Malawi.
Kalitendere said the embassy in Addis Ababa should not be funded from Malawi but should be allowed to access the money in the account.
Auditor General Thomas Makiwa said diplomats in Addis Ababa are paid foreign service allowances as well as other allowances from Malawi.
Makiwa said the issue is not only affecting Addis Ababa, saying there are several other embassies affected, including Malawi’s embassy in Japan.
According to Makiwa, that is why authorities have been asking for revenue budgets of the embassies so that they know how much they plan to collect so that officials can plan for expenditures alongside those revenues.
“I think, at that point, it could be an issue to say, ‘How much are the foreign service allowances costing the diplomats in Addis per month and per year?’ If that money is matching the revenue that they are going to collect, then you stop sending the money to Addis.
“And it is also a motivation to them to collect more [money] because they know that they are the beneficiaries of the same. So, as I said, concrete information might come from the Ministry of Finance but I know because we have seen in the books that they, indeed, externalise the money to service the diplomats in our embassies,” Makiwa said.
