ACB remains silent on judge’s corruption complaint after 5 years

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has not commented on whether it has reviewed a complaint filed five years ago by Supreme Court Justice Esmie Chombo, who informed the Malawi Law Society (MLS) that lawyers allegedly conspired with court officials to destroy court documents.

In a letter to the MLS dated January 18, 2018, Judge Chombo, then chief justice of the Lilongwe Registry but now retired, complained that some lawyers were paying court staff to “lose or destroy court records in order to frustrate proceedings.”

In 2021, Justice Chombo, speaking through the then Registrar of the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Malawi, Gladys Gondwe (now a judge), stated that she had not received any feedback on her complaint.

MLS president Patrick Mpaka said in an earlier interview that when MLS received a complaint from Judge Chombo, the heads of the lawyers’ body, which was then headed by lawyer Khumbo Soko as president, referred the matter to the ACB for investigation.

However, in a WhatsApp reply last week, Mpaka said he was not aware of any recent updates on the matter and asked for more time to check.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Blantyre lawyer and former MLS president John-Gift Mwakhwawa said the MLS was at the mercy of the ACB, adding that the legal body was not prepared to conduct such an investigation on its own, especially since no names were released. erring lawyers.

When Weekend Nation sent a questionnaire to ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala last week, she indicated that she was gathering information, but no response had been received as we went to press last night.

Governance expert Charles Kajoloweka criticized the ACB for its inaction, describing it as an example of the failure of law enforcement agencies to combat entrenched impunity in the justice system.

In an interview on Thursday, Kajoloweka said: “One would expect that such a call for action by a judge would be treated with the seriousness it deserves, given that it comes from a place of information and evidence. ACB must account for such passivity.”

However, Kajoloweka, who is also the executive director of Youth and Society (YAS), said he was aware that the ACB’s efforts to fight corruption among some lawyers had been thwarted by questionable orders from some judges.

He said: “This is a program designed to protect “corrupt sellers of justice.” When talking about judicial accountability, we must remember that lawyers play a key role in facilitating corruption. They are the midwives of corruption in the justice system.”

Agreeing with Kajoloweka, Center for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira suggested that ACB’s silence indicates collusion between law enforcement agencies.

“The Office’s inaction in this and other matters clearly shows that it is at risk and there is a conflict of interest. It appears to be serving the interests of a few privileged Malawians at the expense of the majority,” Kambwandira said.

He added: “One can speculate that ACB is even more corrupt than corruption itself. It is high time that both the ACB and the judiciary were held to a serious level of accountability.”

In her letter to the MLS, the judge also complained that court reporters and clerks are abandoning legal court work in favor of writing and printing for some attorneys who offer them money for their services, which she said is “clearly unacceptable.”

Over the years, judicial processes in the country have been riddled with missing files or pages in the docket, as well as lost files, as Judge Anaclet Chipeta, now retired, mentioned in a previous interview Weekend Nationcited as one of the causes of delays in the administration of justice in the country.