IPTL under fresh investigations by PCCB

[BAK]

IPTL under fresh investigations by PCCB

Tuesday, 05 July 2011 23:11

By Mkinga Mkinga The Citizen Reporter Dar es Salaam. The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has launched fresh investigations on the Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), this paper can report.In an interview yesterday, the PCCB chief, Dr Edward Hoseah, admitted that his office has launched investigations against the company over two issues of embezzlement of public funds and costs involved in power generation.He said the public outcry over hiked prices of power produced by the company was partly what made the anti corruption organ to act. In the last Parliament sitting, the minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja, told the house that the government has spent Sh46.4 billion from November last year to last February in buying heavy furnace oil for the IPTL. He said an average expenditure of Sh15.62 billion a month had to be used by the government in efforts to solve the power shortage. Minister Ngeleja said the money used to buy the furnace oil was sourced from the government. He said a total of 36,800 tonnes of furnace oil was purchased and the plant was using about 400 tonnes a day. Sources told this paper that about six per cent of Sh15 billion spent each month to service the IPTL machines is pocketed by government officials as money spent in buying the furnace oil. The government has used the emergency umbrella to buy furnace oil to run the power plant, and two oil companies, Oryx and Total, are supplying it to the IPTL. Dr Hoseah said yesterday that the huge amount of money which has been spent by the government was another factor which attracted their attention. He said they want to establish if it was true that the amount was indeed used as stated.In the April Parliament session, Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe presented the matter before the speaker by asking for intervention. He requested the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals to conduct special investigations on the IPTL oil tender. “There are doubts if the tender followed all processes as required by the Public Procurement Act of 2004. So the energy and minerals committee should conduct thorough investigations to establish what happened,” part of MP Zitto’s letter to the speaker reads. Meanwhile, Dr Hoseah said the PCCB was waiting for a report from the Parliament on bribery allegations against the Ministry of Energy and Minerals to formally launch investigations. Reports, which have also been confirmed by the Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, said the ministry’s officials had tried to bribe some members of the parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals so that they could pass the ministry budget which will be tabled later this month. Speaking to this paper yesterday through the phone from Dodoma, Dr Hoseah admitted being aware of the allegations, but could not remember if the Bunge office had requested for an investigation. “I’m in Dodoma for our budget proceedings I cannot assure you if they (Bunge) have filed a letter to my office, but I think they will do so the investigations will be done,” Dr Hoseah confirmed. On Monday the Energy and Minerals parliamentary committee chairman, Mr January Makamba, said it was true that some of his committee members were tempted by some senior officials from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals to approve its budget. “I don’t want to go into details as we agreed that it will be dealt with by authorities that guide our Parliament rather we did not inform the PCCB,” Mr Makamba said. He was once quoted saying that his committee would block the ministry’s budget proposals if it failed to give satisfactory answers to measures for resolving the power crisis.“We are not joking the ministry is going to face the ‘music’ in the course of seeking endorsement of its budget by the Parliament,” Mr Makamba was quoted as saying. But last month the committee passed the budget estimates after the ministry incorporated many changes which the committee had proposed. The committee took about three days to complete discussing the estimates as they were going through one paragraph after another. Mr Makamba said the original budget estimates had some aspects which needed amending. He added that those amended include expenses and investments in the ministry.

 

[SHERRIF ARPAIO]

Sources told this paper that about six per cent of Sh15 billion spent each month to service the IPTL machines is pocketed by government officials as money spent in buying the furnace oil

Nambari waniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh, nambari wani ni CCM

 

[Ninaweza]

kiinimacho, mbona wameshindwa kufungua ya rada ambayo ushahidi upo wazi.

 

[Mbopo]

If previous experiences are any thing to go by, then we should not expect anything of substance in this impending investigation. I no longer take Hosea's words seriously. It is a smokescreen!