Posted on October, 17, 2017 at 11:15 am
THE minister for Agriculture, Dr Charles Tizeba, has sacked three senior officials and suspended three others over embezzlement of funds meant for agricultural inputs in Geita region.
Dr Tizeba directed the ministry’s Permanent Secretary (PS), Engineer Mathew Mtigumwe, to Serve the officials with letters for effecting the decision, after they were implicated in a probe team formed in May this year to investigate into the matter.
In the same vein, minister ordered security officials to arrest and prosecute them over negligence and violation of the procurement law. According to the committee report, over 1,000 beneficiaries of agricultural inputs, including agents for the 2015/2016 season, public officials at village, district and regional level were implicated in the scam.
Dr Tizeba, who gave the directives at a news conference on the sidelines of the International Food Day here yesterday, said the government suffered a 29bn/- loss related to agricultural inputs during the 2015/2016 season.
He said the ministry would form another probe team to investigate the suspended officials over their probable association with the scam. The fired officials are Deputy Director of Inputs unit, Mr Shenal Nyoni, Agriculture Officer Grade I, Mr Michael Mayabu and Mr Frank Kabambwa, from the ministry’s headquarters.
The suspended officials, according to the minister, are the Director of Crops Development, Mr Twahir Nzalawahe, the Director of Procurement and Logistics, Mr Burhan Shaban, and Acting Deputy Director of inputs unit, Canuth Komba.
Dr Tizeba added that apart from negligence and blatant disregard of the law as public servants, the three sacked officials were among a group of five people who were suspended in April 2017 pending investigations into their conduct prior to forming of a committee of inquiry.
After completion of investigations a probe team concluded that the three sacked officials were directly linked to the allegations of embezzlement. In the 2015/2016 season, the government allocated 35.5bn/- for agricultural input subsidies.
However, the report showed that after the distribution of subsidies the debt submitted to the government exceeding the allocated budget for the subsidies for almost 30bn/The findings further revealed that, due to blatant disregard of the procurement law, some officials occasioned the printing of 2,099,778 inputs vouchers amounting to 78.1bn/- which was more than the actual budget for the procurement of inputs by 42.6bn/-.
Dr Tizeba said copies of the findings by a probe team would be distributed to all Regional Commissioners (RCS). The ministry’s PS said all the important procedures and regulations in the public service had been fully abided by, prior to sacking and suspending the ministry’s officials.
“A committee of inquiry will be formed by the ministry to probe the matter so that justice can be done to all the suspended officials,” said Eng Mtigumwe.
Meanwhile MARC NKWAMER reports that President John Magufuli has just overhauled the Board of Directors in charge of managing the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO), the public firm responsible for handling the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).
According to an official dispatch signed on Monday by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, Dr Leonard M. Chamuhiro, the directive to that effect came through the Minister in charge of the portfolio, Prof Makame Mbarawa, who has appointed, Mr Gregory George Teu the new KADCO Board Chairman.
“The new appointment is in accordance with the ‘Public Corporation Act Cap 257 R.E. 2002/ sect 9(1) and (2)’ and therefore Mr Teu’s recruitment takes immediate effect,” reads part of the statement from the Permanent Secretary, Dr Chamuhiro sent on 16th of October 2017.
Under the changes, Mr Gregory George Teu (66) replaces Ambassador Hassan Gumbo Kibelloh, who headed the former Board of Directors at KADCO. In turn, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Prof Mbarawa has revoked the appointment of Mr Suleiman Suleiman who used to serve in the dismissed board panel.
The Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO) manages the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), which is the country’s second largest and second busiest terminal after Julius Kambarage Nyerere International Airport (JKNIA) of Dar-es-salaam.
The Kilimanjaro International Airport, dubbed the ‘safest’ terminal in East Africa, is strategically located about halfway between Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions and since these are the main tourist portals in the north, KIA with annual passenger flow of 600,000 travellers and handling more than 16 airlines, the terminal remains Tanzania’s major tourists’ landing spot.
Kilimanjaro International Airport has direct flight connections to Europe, the Middle East and several destinations on the African continent. Some of the international airlines using the airport are KLM, Edelweiss Air, Condor Air, Turkish Airline, Qatar, Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, Rwandair, Fastjet and Precision Air.
In 2013, Kilimanjaro Airport was declared overall winner of the ‘Routes Africa Airport Marketing Award,’ which is highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline industry.
Source: Daily News