Mramba: I acted within the law

Former cabinet ministers Basil Mramba (left) and Daniel Yona (right), as well as former Treasury permanent secretary Gray Mgonja appear at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY 

By  Rosina John

Posted  Wednesday, September 18  2013 at  00:00

In Summary

They are also alleged to have illegally granted a tax exemption to Alex Stewart Assayers, the company hired to audit gold production that caused the government to suffer a Sh11.7 billion loss.

Dar es Salaam. Former cabinet minister Basil Mramba told the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court that the process of granting tax exemption to Alex Stewart Assayers was done in accordance with the laws of the land.

Mramba made the statement yesterday as part of his defence testimony in an abuse of office case.

Led by his advocate Herbert Nyange, Mramba told the court that he did so to fulfill a clause in the contract that the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) had entered with Alex Stewart that the latter be granted tax exemption.

“We saw, and advised that the best way was to grant tax exemption because if the company took the payment with tax charged, it could take more money. This is according to the law and contract,” insisted Mr Mramba.

In the case, Mramba is charged along with Mr Daniel Yona, who served as Energy and Minerals minister in third phase of Benjamin William Mkapa, and former Treasury permanent secretary Gray Mgonja.

They are also alleged to have illegally granted a tax exemption to Alex Stewart Assayers, the company hired to audit gold production that caused the government to suffer a Sh11.7 billion loss.

Their case followed three years of investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the Police into the suspicious hiring of Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation (ASA) to audit gold production in Tanzania. The firm was in 2003 controversially assigned through a contract, which saw it receive a whopping Sh65 billion ($50 million) in gold audit fees. It completed the assignment and left the country in August 2007.