IN Malawi, hundreds defied the rains on Wednesday to hear corruption charges against a senior civil servant and two construction executives, the principal suspects in a case in which 68 state employees and executives are being accused of stealing more than $20 million (N1.2bn) of public funds.

The interests centre on elections that are due on 20 May 2014, less than four months away. As the charges were being reeled out, the crowd could be hearing the equivalent of a party’s scorecard, and wondering what government was doing.

Malawians are witnessing the biggest corruption scandal in their history, at least the one that made it to the court. A chief accountant in the Ministry of Tourism reportedly defrauded government of $1.3 million through unauthorised purchase of six luxury buses not meant for government use. It is uncertain how he intended to use them.

Directors of a construction company were also charged for receiving payment without providing any service to government.

“We have been looking for answers, and the answers can be found through the court proceedings,” Information Minister Brown Mpinganjira said as the hearings started.

“I pray that they’ll go fast so that Malawians can finally know what happened,” he added. Officially, $20 million of stolen state funds have been tracked. Other sources say the stolen money could be up to $100 million.

Suspects were said to have used a central government computer payment system to transfer money to non-existent firms for supposed services they provided. Once the transactions were concluded, they deleted the companies’ information from the system. President Joyce Banda’s chances at the polls could be affected. She acted quickly to save her career and stem threats by the foreign donors to cut off aid worth $150 million. She sacked her entire cabinet last year.

Politicians, senior officials of the ruling party, have been mentioned in the scandal. A former Minister of Justice was arrested for money laundering. Another charge of conspiracy to murder was made against him after a whistleblower, through whom the authorities learnt of the allegations, was shot outside the former minister’s house last year.

Banda became president when Bingu wa Mutharika died. She blames inherited “loopholes” for looting of public funds. The public wants to see offenders punished to deter further depleting of the country’s lean resources.

Malawi is definitely a marked difference from Nigeria. The authorities believe our resources are “inexhaustible”. Who would bother with a meager N1.2bn of stolen public funds? Who would tackle corruption cases against his party members when elections are near?

When society fails to act against corruption, it encourages associated crimes by either impunity or the vengeance of an army of those who looters deny opportunities.