LILONGWE, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested eight officials and two civilians over alleged corruption in passport issuance.
The anti-graft body made the arrests after conducting undercover investigations at the regional offices of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services in the capital Lilongwe, following growing complaints that passport applicants were paying five times the cost of an ordinary Malawian passport.
Confirming the arrests, ACB Acting Director General Hilary Chilomba told local media that the bureau's investigations revealed that people were allegedly being forced to pay an additional sum of up to 200,000 Malawi kwacha (about 116 U.S. dollars) on top of the official cost of 50,000 Malawi kwacha (about 29 U.S. dollars).
Chilomba added that some of the arrested officials were found with huge sums of money, including one with a total sum of 2.5 million Malawi kwacha (over 1,400 U.S. dollars) that he could not account for. ■
