TANZANIAN PARLIAMENT TO DEBATE IPTL PROBE REPORTS

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Zitto Kabwe.

Dodoma. Parliament will debate two investigation reports on the $122 million (Sh207 billion) Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) controversy during its ongoing sitting, The Citizen has learnt.

The move is a big blow to the government, which initially wanted the reports to be tabled in the next sitting scheduled for February 2015 on the grounds that the office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) was had yet to conclude its investigation.

Parliament’s Steering Committee, which met on Tuesday evening under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai, agreed that reports compiled by CAG and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau be tabled on November 27 for debate.

The parliamentary sitting is scheduled to end on November 28. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Zitto Kabwe, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, told The Citizen yesterday that it was decided after stormy discussions that the two reports be tabled during the current sitting.

“I can confirm that the government has been directed by Parliament to table the reports for debate later this month. There was strong resistance from the government, but a decision was finally reached,” he said.

Mr Kabwe added that the IPTL reports had been included in Parliament’s business schedule.

Mr Ndugai on Tuesday promised to announce the outcome of the Steering Committee’s meeting yesterday morning, but failed to do so.

Asked to state what was decided, he said: “Everything has been included in the schedule as agreed.”

Kigoma South MP David Kafulila also confirmed that the eagerly awaited IPTL probe reports would be tabled for debate during the current sitting.

He told The Citizen yesterday that he did not bother to remind Mr Ndugai of the promise he made on Tuesday as he had already learnt from members of the Steering Committee that the IPTL saga would be debated before Parliament adjourned.

The IPTL Tegeta escrow account saga rocked the august House on Tuesday when MPs from both the Opposition and the ruling party demanded a parliamentary probe.

The move came after the government failed to submit its report on the matter. Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda promised earlier this year that he would present two reports on the investigations into the escrow billions carried out by the PCCB and CAG.

Donors promptly responded that they would not change their decision to suspend budget support amounting to Sh1 trillion since no progress had been made in investigations.

It was not immediately clear why the government seemed reluctant to table the two reports, but reliable sources told The Citizen on condition of anonymity that there were fears the saga, if not handled carefully, would have serious and far-reaching consequences like the Richmond scandal, which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two Cabinet ministers in February 2008.

However, this explanation has only served to deepen the mystery since it is the PM Pinda who ordered the investigations in the first place.

The Citizen has learnt that the Prime Minister’s Office was not directly involved in the IPTL escrow deal and the matter was handled by Attorney General Frederick Werema, Energy and Minerals Permanent Eliakim Maswi, the Bank of Tanzania, Treasury, the High Court of Tanzania and Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco).

The Citizen