Lilongwe, MALAWI – The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it has resubmitted its enhanced Lifestyle Audit Manual to the Cabinet for consideration and approval, marking a major milestone in the country’s fight against corruption, unexplained wealth, and the plunder of public resources.
In a statement, ACB Acting Director General Gabriel Chembezi said the manual aims to close long-standing loopholes that corrupt individuals use to launder public money into private assets.
According to Chembezi, lifestyle audits will fundamentally shift how anti-graft bodies investigate financial crimes by moving away from traditional, reactive methods.
“In the Malawian setup, lifestyle audits will serve as a critical proactive tool in the prevention and detection of illicitly acquired wealth. For decades, traditional reactive investigative methods have struggled to catch sophisticated corruption networks.
“Lifestyle audits shift the burden by focusing on the visible mismatch between an individual’s lawful income and their standard of living or asset accumulation,” reads part of the statement.
The resubmission comes after Cabinet deferred consideration of the initial framework in November 2024 to allow the Minister of Justice to amend the Corrupt Practices Act (CPA) so that private citizens were covered alongside public servants.
However, the Bureau noted that the original draft had already included private citizens.
While formal review of the CPA remains ongoing, the ACB re-forwarded the manual in its initial form, pointing out that existing laws already provide sufficient backing.
The Bureau emphasized that the Financial Crimes Act (FCA), alongside other financial intelligence tools, fully empowers investigators to trace and demand accountability for disproportionate wealth across both public and private sectors.
The ACB expressed optimism that Cabinet will approve the framework in line with the government’s zero-tolerance stance on corruption, calling on Malawians to embrace lifestyle audits not as a tool for victimization, but as a patriotic step toward national development.