The Lilongwe Magistrates Court has denied bail 16 Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA) officials who were arrested last week.

This has been done to give time to the State to finish its investigation.

The State asked for 14 days to finish the investigations.

The court however, has given it seven days, after which if the State fails to finish investigations, the accused will be entitled to make another application for bail.

The 16 who include Dodma Deputy Director, Fyabupi Mwafongo and Public Relations Officer Chipiliro Khamula, were arrested last week for allegedly abusing part of the K16.2 billion Covid-19 funds.

They were charged with abuse of office and theft by public servant.