A Malawian police officer has been arrested after being implicated in a K39.5 million (about $254,839) that mysteriously went missing from a Malawi Electoral Commission bank account, a development that confirms suspicions that the police officers help criminals steal.

The Fiscal police confirmed to The Daily Times the arrest of Detective Sergeant Dyson Banda, 26. He is among three other suspected criminals arrested for the fraud which occurred at government owned Malawi Saving Bank (MSB).

Meanwhile, one of the three other suspects John Kachingwe, 35, is answering charges of fraud, impersonation and altering a document after he withdrew over K2 million (about $12,903) from another person’s account at a bank branch in Karonga, northern Malawi in a mafia-like operation.

“These four were arrested between Thursday last week and Tuesday and they will answer the charges of forgery, altering a document and obtaining money by false pretence,” Fiscal Police boss Theresa Nankhuni was quoted as saying.

The four are suspected to have withdrawn the money in two batches after lying that they were accounts personnel from the electoral body.

Malawi Electoral Commission is currently planning for the local government polls which were slated for November 23 but were postponed to a date yet to be announced.

Issues of lack of funding were identified as a barricade to the country holding the polls.

The fraud took place in May this year.

The money was stolen from the Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates corporate current account which kept money the electoral body collected as nomination fees ahead of the general elections in May 2009.

The commission refunded candidates who pooled more than 5 per cent of the results.

John Kachingwe forged a signature and fraudulently acquired a driving licence in the name of the account holder and cheated bank tellers at the Karonga bank branch.

Sanje Msiska