EX-TANESCO CHIEF DENIES SANCTIONING 884M/- SUPPLY CONTRACT

William Mhando

Former Managing Director of Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO), William Mhando, on Friday denied prosecution’s claims of sanctioning 884m/- worth of contract for supply of stationeries allegedly awarded to a company owned by his wife and children.

He also denied to have signed as the managing director of Tanesco the contract won by Santa Clara Supplies Company Limited, a company whose directors are his wife, Eva and his children and subsequently he signed the award letter addressed to the family company (Santa Clara).

Furthermore, Mhando even denied claims that he knows Santa Clara was owned by his family members and that he had failed to declare interest when the said company applied for the tender to supply stationeries, printing and computerconsumable for 884,550,000/-.

He was responding to memorandum of facts presented before Senior Resident Magistrate Frank Moshi at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam by a prosecutor from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Mr Leonard Swai.

On Friday the case came for preliminary hearing. During the session, the prosecution disclosed that it would call 14 witnesses and produce 18 documentary exhibits in attempt to prove the charges against the accused person.

The trial is expected to take off on July 29. Mhando is charged alongside his wife Eva and three other employees of the utility firm, France Mchalange and Sophia Misidai, both principal accountants and Naftali Kisinga, a supplies officer.

Reading other facts of the case, the prosecutor alleged that being the managing director of Tanesco, Mhando was a public leader within the meaning of the public leadership code of ethics and that Santa Clara was owned by Eva William, Fred William and Veronica Mhando.

He alleged that Eva and her children attempted to sell their company to someone else, but such attempt aborted. The sale of the company, according to the prosecution, was made at the time the Santa Clara had provided bidding documents for the tender in question.

Mr Swai told the court further that Eva allegedly forged an audit financial report of her company for 2007/8, purporting to show that Finx Capital House audited the balance sheet of Santa Clara.

He alleged that Eva allegedly forged a transfer of shares of stock document, purportedly showing she has transferred her 200 ordinary shares of 10,000/- in the undertaking called Santa Clara Supplies Company Limited to Eveta John Shing’oma.

The prosecution claimed that knowingly and fraudulently, Eva uttered to the Secretary of the Tanesco Tender Board, the said audit report of Santa Clara Company and being its managing Director she obtained 31,747,000/- from Tanesco through supply of office stationery.

Being employees of Tanesco and members of the evaluation committee for the tender in question for the supply of stationery, Mchalange, Misidai and Kisinga, allegedly gave false information to the Tender Board to show that Santa Clara was a qualified bidder of the tender.