Reacting to concerns raised by Lilongwe South legislator Peter Dimba in parliament on Monday, who noted that it is unfair to expect the taxpayer to foot over K1Billion to cover costs on pretext that MSB was overvalued, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe quashed away the bank’s claims.

Gondwe stressed that Capital Hill does not owe FDH Bank anything as ample time to conduct due diligence was done before the sale of MSB to the bank.

“We don’t owe any money to FDH as before the sale we had due diligence done which means they were quite satisfied after the value of the bank was stated”

“To come back after they have already done the due diligence does not make sense to us” Observed Gondwe.

The Finance Minister stated that he wholeheartedly agreed with Dimba’s observations that it did not make sense for a buyer who was asked to make due diligence before deciding to buy shares to cry foul over the process now.

He noted that following the sale the financial services group never raised any objections which meant they were quite satisfied with the value of the bank.

In his contribution to the Budget Motion moved by Finance Minister, Dimba observed that the K1.1 Billion refund claim to Treasury by the bank from the poor taxpayer is an example of poor decision-making and unacceptable.

Dimba reminded the house that not long ago a special purpose vehicle fund was set up to recover K6 Billion from defaulters at MSB but not a single tambala has been recovered to date.

The Lilongwe South Member of Parliament expressed hope that Secretary to the Treasury (ST) won’t be pressured to succumb to the bank’s demand.

Gondwe quickly came in to assure Parliament that it is in fact government which gave the ST instructions to write FDH that Treasury does not owe them any money.

FDH’s claim through the Public Private Partnership Commission comes almost a year after buying 75% of shares in the wholly owned state bank in a K9.5 Billion package on July 2 last year.

In a related development Speaker of Parliament has warned legislators that they risk having their allowances withdrawn for absconding deliberations without prior notice.

Richard Msowoya explained that the move will be implemented immediately as the abscondment of the MP’s is of great concern to the House.