“The situation is tragic. I have with me here a report that shows the
money might not be wholly recovered,” Mr Zitto Kabwe, chairman of PAC.
In Summary
In the unprecedented scam, billions of
shillings were dished out to help the economy; some firms collected the
money and disappeared.
23 Bn Sum in Japanese yen provided by Japan to be loaned to companies for importation of various products.
Dar es Salaam. Hopes of
collecting money released through the Commodity Import (CIS) Support
programme have been dashed following details that emerged yesterday,
showing that some of the companies which accessed the Sh379 billion
through the aid plan were fake entities, while others have gone
bankrupt.
It is one of the embezzlement scandals of the
decade which introduced public funds to grand corruption schemes that
had not been experienced before: billions of shillings were dished out
to help the economy; some firms collected the money and disappeared.
Some development partners teamed up with the
government to facilitate the importation of key commodities in the
country about ten years ago to ease, among other things, food shortages.
The government of Japan provided a grant of 23
billion yen to be loaned to companies for importation of various
products. It was agreed that once the money is recovered, it would be
used to develop small firms and local entrepreneurs.
But according to reports from the Treasury, only
some Sh142 billion has been recovered but the fate of the rest of the
money is unknown because some of the companies, it has emerged, were
fake.
Officials from the Treasury yesterday appeared
before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to give the
progress so far made in recovering the debt cash and painted the gloomy
picture. PAC was told that about Sh237 billion is yet to be collected by
Msolopa Investment Limited, the debt collector appointed by the
government.
About 900 companies lined up for the funds. It
could not be immediately established yesterday how many of those were
fake and how many have gone under.
“The situation is tragic. I have with me here a
report that shows the money might not be wholly recovered,” Mr Zitto
Kabwe, chairman of PAC, said yesterday.
Mr Kabwe, who is also the deputy leader of
Official Opposition in Parliament and MP for Kigoma North (Chadema),
expressed concern that the Control and Auditor General (CAG) has never
audited the Commodity Import Support project.
To get to the bottom of the problem, the PAC
resolved to consult the Parliament leadership to see the possibility of
forming a special team to investigate the CIS project.
“We have decided to consult the Clerk of the
National Assembly, Mr Thomas Kashilila, to look into the possibility and
modalities of forming a parliamentary task force to probe the whole
thing…the team would draw members from the Police Force, Prevention and
Combating of Corruption Bureau, Treasury, and PAC,” Mr Kabwe told
reporters yesterday.
The acting commissioner of External Finance in the
ministry of Finance, Mr Samuel Maro, said the import support debt has
lasted more than 10 years due to the confusion brought about by the fact
that some of the government institutions that accessed some of the
funds were privatised and others were wound up.
He noted that his office has already requested the liquidation
certificates from Business Registrations & Licensing Agency (Brela),
for verifying the veracity of the companies that went bankrupt in order
to cancel the debt.
CIS was a form of aid used by foreign donors
starting from the early 1980s to help foreign currency-strapped African
countries import key commodities for public consumption. Many African
countries benefited from this programme from various bilateral donors,
but in Tanzania the project was mismanaged with billions of money
unaccounted for to date.
Entities that accessed the money included
government ministries, parastatals and several government agencies as
well as private firms.
source: the citizen
source: the citizen
