Cashgate an embarrassment to government —Gondwe
Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe on Thursday described the plunder of public funds that happened in the country as an embarrassment to Malawi.
Gondwe made the remarks in Lilongwe at the launch of Malawi Digital Payments system, an initiative that will see the country shift away from cash payments to electronic or digital payments.
The minister said he believed that if Malawi had migrated to electronic payments way back like was the case with other countries, Cashgate could have been avoided.
“I’m just coming from Washington where my colleagues and I held a number of meetings and it was just inescapable; the issue of Cashgate kept coming up in each and every meeting and it was quite embarrassing,” said Gondwe.
He added: “I would like to challenge each one of us working in the financial system that we must swear that the issue of Cashgate must never happen again.”
Gondwe s a id a s Minister of Finance, and as one of the statesmen of the country, he would like to see the people behind the implementation of the launched Digital Payments system moving fast to avoid further challenges the country’s financial system faces.
He said the country was 40 years behind in terms of electronic payments and that there was need to catch up and move with the rest of the world.
Also present at the launch were UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Malawi, Mia Seppo, and USAID Mission Director to Malawi, Doug Arbuckle and in their remarks, the two challenged government to implement the digital payment system as soon as possible.
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