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| The Minister of Transport, Mr Samwel Sitta, speaks at a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, where he said that the decision to suspend the officials came following an investigation into the procurement of TRL substandard wagons. |
Other officials suspended are the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Ngosomwile Ngosomiles, Chief Accountant Mbaraka Mchopa, Chief Internal Auditor Jasper Kisiraga and Procurement Manager Fedinard Soka.
The Minister of Transport, Mr Samwel Sitta, told a press conference yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the decision to suspend the officials came following an investigation on the procurement of TRL substandard wagons.
He said apart from a number of blunders which were discovered by the probe committee, it was found out that the procurement of the carriages was done contrary to the contract that required the payment to be done in installments.
"Contrary to the agreement, the payment for the substandard wagons were paid once, the contractors were paid all the money once. This is contrary to the agreement," he said.
"By all manners of definition, this is nothing other than sabotage to the company and to the government," he added. He noted that after smelling dishonesty in the deal, he stopped importation of other machines.
Following the scandal, Mr Sitta, therefore directed the Permanent Secretary of the Minister to supervise the formulation of the committee which will among other things investigate all the saga involving the embezzlement of multi billions shillings.
The committee, according to the Minister, will be led by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) in collaboration with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Office of Attorney General.
Mr Sitta gave a three weeks period starting from April 20 for the committee to conduct the investigation, and at the time all the TRL top officials that are involved in the saga have been sent home to pave the way for the investigations.
"At the moment I have appointed Mr Elias Mshana Acting Managing Director of TRL until when the investigation is done and also I have asked the TRL Board of Directors to immediately meet and appoint the suitable personnel to act on the other vacant posts," he noted.
Meanwhile, Mr Sitta said Mr Madeni Kipande who was the Acting Director General of Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), will be assigned another job as he has been disqualified from serving as the authority's boss.
Mr Kipande was suspended by the minister, among other things for mismanagement and violation of procurement procedures.
He said after receiving and reading the information that was submitted by the committee which was formulated on February 16 this year to investigate the allegations that were levelled against Mr Kipande and also after consulting various institutions related to these matters, we have come to a conclusion that Mr Kipande cannot any longer be the Director General of TPA.
"This is due to the fact that we have proved beyond reasonable doubts that the mismanagement that Mr Kipande had shown has led to a lot of dissatisfaction among TPA staff, clients and stakeholders," he noted.
Mr Sitta said the government has therefore decided that the Public Service Secretariat will reallocate Mr Kipande another post.
"Mr Kipande is no longer credible of leading the TPA, he has hasty decisions, which does not follow regulations and which are also very unreasonable. He has to be reallocated another post but not related to that of leading TPA," he insisted.
According to the Minister, the allegations that Eng. Kipande was facing include frequent changes of names of evaluation committees and delay in issuing letters after tender announcement, which according to the minister, paints a bad picture of the government and TPA to the world.
Daily News
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