Maravi

Police probe K74m scam in Kalomo

Police probe K74m scam in Kalomo
By Laurence Lungu
Thursday February 14, 2008 [03:00]

POLICE in Kalomo are investigating the disappearance of about K74 million deposited in the Government Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) account at Finance Bank’s Kalomo branch. Both Kalomo district Commissioner Oliver Pelete and Finance Bank director of Corporate Banking and Marketing Noel Nkhoma confirmed the development.

“Yes, I am aware of this problem but since it involves fraud, the matter has been presented to the police,” Pelete said.

“Farmers allegedly paid their 50 per cent contribution but somewhere somehow, this money has ended up elsewhere and not in the FSP account,” he said.

When asked how the money could have ‘disappeared’, Pelete said this could only be known after the police concluded their investigations.

“All I can say is that Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives handles the paper work to determine who qualifies to benefit from the subsidised inputs. The farmers who qualify are then given deposit slips and they proceed to deposit the money at Finance Bank and then go on to collect the inputs after producing evidence that they had paid,” Pelete said.

The evidence the farmers are expected to produce is a deposit slip stamped with the official Finance Bank emblem.

And Nkhoma said the matter involved a forged bank stamp.
Nkhoma said the onus was on the affected farmers to inform the police who they gave their money to.

“This will then give the law enforcement agency enough information to find out who the culprits are,” Nkhoma said.

posted by MrK @ 3:57 AM