High Court Judge Ruth Chinagwa has revoked bail of former budget director, Paul Mphwiyo.
This follows an application which the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) made after Mphwiyo was found to have absconded bail since June 2023.
ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala has confirmed the revocation.
“On Friday the State made an application to the High Court in Lilongwe to revoke bail for Paul Mphwiyo who has absconded since June 2023.
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“The State informed the court that Mphwiyo had not reported for his bail as per the bail conditions. The Court has therefore made a ruling revoking his bail and that he should be arrested whenever and wherever he is found,” Ndala said.
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According to Ndala, the Court has also ordered that Mphwiyo’s bail bond of K10 million and that of his four sureties which were each bonded at K2 million be forfeited to the Malawi Government.
Mphwiyo is answering corruption charges in court related to the cashgate, a scandal which came to light in 2013.
He was found with a case to answer and the case is waiting for judgment.
In August this year, Malawi Police Service declared Mphwiyo a fugitive after he was declared missing on June 26.
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He is believed to be out of the country.
His disappearance came on June 21, after the Supreme Court of Appeal cleared the High Court to go ahead with its judgment in his case which has been under trial since 2013.
Police preliminary findings indicate that Mphwiyo left Lilongwe through Kamuzu International Airport to Chileka International Airport where he checked out and was last seen leaving a hotel in Blantyre.
Mphwiyo, along with other cashgate suspects, is accused of defrauding the government of K2.4 billion when he was Budget Director.
Cashgate involved the misappropriation of government funds through the transfer of funds from the government bank accounts to private companies in disguise for payment of goods and services.
The scandal was dubbed cashgate because low level public officers who were arrested for committing the offences under this scheme were found with stockpiles of cash in their homes and vehicles.
It was uncovered in September, 2013, when a government accounts clerk whose monthly emoluments were less than $100 was found with sums of cash estimated at over $300,000 in his car.
A week later, there was an assassination attempt on Mphwiyo.
