Former President Dr. Joyce Banda has hailed President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika for deciding to continue with her program of fighting theft and corruption in the country.

Banda made the remarks on Wednesday when she was delivering a public lecture in London at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“Upon learning the nature and gravity of theft of resources in the public service, I immediately instituted a forensic audit by external auditors. I had decided to get to the bottom of the problem and stop theft and corruption in government once and for all. Government audit reports indicated that this systemic cancer had started way back in 2001 but had been left to permeate and mature.

“We arrested 68 suspects most of them civil servants. Most of them are answering charges in court now. We had frozen 30 bank accounts. I had committed myself to fight corruption without fear knowing very well the repercussions on my political career as elections were just months away”, said Banda.

She added: “I had realized that if we stopped theft and corruption in Government, we would save close to 30 percent of our national budget. I made these decisions knowing very well that those affected will fight back, smear and blackmail me with all sorts of name calling and threats including death threats. But I needed to deal with the matter once and for all.

“I wish to thank the British Government for providing to my Government financial support to conduct an external forensic audit and also the German Government who have taken my request to finance the second phase of the forensic audit into 2009 to 2012 period”.

She also said that during her tenure of office she took painful but necessary decision to devalue the currency by almost 40 percent in order to save the economy from collapse.

The public lecture gave Banda a chance to reflect on her journey to the highest level of public life.