By Edwin Mauluka

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it will reopen investigations into the Public Service Pension Trust Fund’s (PSPTF) purchase of Amaryllis Hotel for MWK128 billion after new information emerged during an ongoing parliamentary inquiry.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts, ACB Acting Director General Gabriel Chembezi said revelations from the committee’s proceedings are helping fill key gaps that stalled earlier investigations.

“I did indicate that the ACB stands ready to reopen the investigations. Though I don’t have full information, I hear that MWK90 billion has already been paid. We are going immediately to reissue another restriction notice to prevent payment of the balance until the matter is conclusively investigated,” said Chembezi.

He added that the bureau will also request the Financial Intelligence Authority to freeze the account that received the funds until investigations are concluded.

“Immediately from here, I will write a letter to the Financial Intelligence Authority to consider freezing the account into which the money went until investigations are concluded,” he said.

Chembezi’s remarks came after lawmakers pressed the bureau to take stronger action.

Committee chairperson Steve Malondera said the public expects concrete results from the investigation.

“People want real action, not action based on character assassination, but action based on conclusive evidence,” said Malondera.

He urged the ACB to conduct its work based on solid evidence and indicate how Parliament and other institutions can support the process.

Malondera stressed that timelines are critical to ensure effective oversight.

“We do not want this investigation to be one of those talk shows that Malawi has always been having. We want results,” he said.

Chembezi, however, said the ACB would allow the committee’s proceedings to conclude first, noting that they are likely to produce further revelations.

He said possible targets of the renewed investigation include PSPTF directors to establish why they proceeded with the purchase despite three risks highlighted by the ACB in a letter dated January 3, 2026.

Chembezi also cited EMJ Advisory Public Accountants, an unregistered firm that recommended the hotel’s value be pegged between MWK115 billion and MWK145 billion.

“We will also investigate the principal officer because if there are issues with this transaction, they did not start with the new board,” he said.

“The transaction began in 2023 and from 2024 to 2025 there was no board in place. All these decisions were being made by the principal officer, including commitments that the fund would buy the hotel. So we cannot fault the transaction without examining the role of the principal officer.”

Malondera further encouraged the ACB to work with Parliament to push for a whistleblower protection law, saying many potential informants fear retaliation.

He said the absence of such a law discourages people with critical information from coming forward.

“We need a proper law to protect whistleblowers because continued silence will make this nation lose its resources,” he said.

The call followed Chembezi’s revelation that ACB’s initial investigation did not uncover evidence of corruption, despite identifying several red flags, including operational risks and a sharp increase in the hotel’s valuation, from about MWK47 billion to MWK128 billion.

“We are aware that a lot has happened and we are now getting new information, especially through these proceedings, which we did not have at the time of undertaking our investigations,” Chembezi said.

He explained that the bureau initially acted on a complaint from an anonymous individual who submitted information to the Malawi Law Society rather than directly to the ACB.

“If we had direct contact with the complainant, we could have asked for further clarification and additional details,” he said.

Chembezi added that the Malawi Law Society declined to provide supporting evidence to the ACB, limiting the bureau’s ability to pursue the allegations.

He said technical complexities surrounding the transaction also constrained the investigation.

As a result, the bureau could not establish whether a previous PSPTF board had resolved not to purchase the hotel or whether sufficient due diligence had been conducted to justify the deal.

ACB seeks to freeze funds, reopen probe into MWK128bn Amaryllis Hotel deal MediaGov — ***ACB Acting Director General Gabriel Chembezi says the bureau will seek to freeze funds and reopen investigations into the MWK128 billion Amaryllis Hotel deal.***

Chembezi also said the ACB did not find evidence of a conflict of interest involving Continental Asset Management, a subsidiary of CDH Investment Bank, which produced a favourable viability analysis after reviewing due diligence conducted by Knight Frank, Garden City and FDH Bank.

The bureau also found no evidence that the newly constituted board of trustees, appointed in September 2025, was pressured to approve the transaction.

According to Chembezi, the board only became aware of the deal on October 6, 2025, when Amaryllis Hotel owners wrote to follow up on the pending purchase.

“This is because for the previous year there was no board, and all transactions related to the Amaryllis Hotel were being handled by the principal officer,” he said.

On allegations that key personnel changes were orchestrated to fast-track the sale, Chembezi said the ACB found no evidence linking the suspension of the principal officer on October 27, 2025, and the appointment of an acting principal officer the following day to the purchase.

He said the resolution authorising the acquisition had already been signed on October 25, 2025, before those personnel changes.

“We investigated each and every allegation made by the Malawi Law Society,” Chembezi said.

“As of December 18, we did not find evidence that people were offered advantages or that money had exchanged hands as inducement for the sale.”

However, Chembezi said the investigation identified several risks if the transaction proceeded as structured.

These included operational risks related to running the hotel, limited involvement of fund managers in finalising the sale and the sharp increase in the purchase price, which required justification.

He said these issues fell largely outside the ACB’s corruption mandate.

“These are matters related to investment and prudential decisions to be made by the fund’s directors,” he said.

Chembezi told the committee that the bureau referred the matter to the Attorney General on December 18, 2025, under powers provided by the Corrupt Practices Act.

“That is why, in my report to the Attorney General, I indicated that if the ACB discovered new evidence of criminality, we would reopen investigations. We knew we might not have captured everything at that time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nico Asset Managers Chief Executive Officer Daniel Dunga told the committee that the firm advised against PSPTF acquiring 100 percent of the hotel.

Instead, Nico recommended bringing in a strategic partner to acquire about 45 percent of the property and manage operations.

Dunga said the firm also raised concerns about the liquidity of the investment and warned that returns could be lower than expected.

He added that in March 2023 the hotel had been valued between MWK47 billion and MWK48.7 billion.

Nico Asset Managers later withdrew from the transaction on December 19, 2023, after PSPTF resolved to acquire the hotel outright.

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