Farmers’ 4bn/- looted now recovered - PCCB
The Prevention and Comabting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has said it has ecovered 4bn/- belonhging to farmers which had been swindled by cooperatives.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salam yesterday, PCCB acting director general Brig Gen John Mbungo said the money has been regained from various Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS), cooperative unions along with Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) in 28 regions.
The PCCB special investigation was a response to a request by Agriculture minister Japhet Hasunga last year after an audit by the Cooperative Audit and Supervision Corporation (COASCO) revealed massive anomalies in the way cooperatives are run.
“The Minister for Agriculture handed me the audit report by COASCO mid November. So far we have investigated a total of 51bn/- and another probe on 72bn/- is ongoing,” he said.
Brig Gen Mbungo said a total of 4413 cooperatives have been audited including 38 cooperative unions, 2710 AMCOS, 1448 SACCOS and 217 other organizations and a total of 124bn/- cash transactions had indications of financial impropriety.
COASCO as of June 2019 before it was handed to PCCB said there were 11,410 registered cooperatives out of which about 6463 were active, 2,844 were sluggish and 2,103 could not be traced.
Mbungo named the audited regions and amount of money saved as Ruvuma (9.9m/-), Kilimanjaro (38m/-) , Manyara (9.8m/-) ,Katavi (49m/-) Coast (291.4m/-), Mbeya (50m/-), Iringa (133.8m/-), Simiyu (57.1m/-), Arusha (1.2m/-), Lindi (1bn/) and Njombe (1bn/-).
Others are Mtwara (681.2m/-) ,Songwe (354.3m/-) ,Tabora (69.4m/-) Tanga (10.8m/-) Dar es Salaam (2.1m/-) and Mara (242.9m/-).
Back in October, President John Magufuli said that leaders of AMCOS and SACCOS in the southern regions had unprocedurally withheld 1.2bn/- belonging to cashew farmers.
Speaking at the State House in Dar es Salaam after swearing in top officials, the president said he had learned of the theft during a tour in Mtwara and Lindi.
He was accompanied in the visit by the Brig Gen John Mbungo, among other officials.
