Pan-African leader accused of funds 'misuse'(the founding President Getrude Mongela)

[paesulta]

Pan-African leader accused of funds 'misuse'
Oct 31, 2009 10:04 PM | By Charles Molele
Proceedings at the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) turned nasty this week when an audit report compiled by the body's ad-hoc committee accused its founding president of misusing thousands of rands.

IRREGULARITIES: Former Pan-African Parliament head Gertrude Mongella
'I trust in God and history will absolve me' - former PAP president Mongella


The report claims that, in December last year, Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania, who was president of the PAP from its beginning in 2004 until March this year, asked the clerk of parliament for a transport allowance for her household furniture amounting to $17000.

Mongella told the clerk that the South African government had provided her with a new residence and she needed to transport her furniture from Tanzania to South Africa. However, said the ad-hoc committee, the president's residence was fully furnished and it did not need additional furniture as she claimed.

In May, Mongella is also said to have written a letter to the acting clerk of the parliament requesting money to cover transport costs for her to move her personal belongings to her house in Dar es Salaam after the end of her term in office.

She was granted R150000.

The report, which has caused consternation among members of the PAP, revealed gross irregularities in the management of the PAP's administrative, financial, institutional and political structures during Mongella's five-year term.

It paints a bleak picture of how Mongella allegedly mismanaged the PAP - an organ of the African Union - and how she undermined former AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, leading to a gradual deterioration of relations and the isolation of the PAP from the AU and its other organs.

According to the ad-hoc committee's chairman, Chief Fortune Charumbira, more than R650000 withdrawn from the PAP's trust fund account could not be accounted for by auditors.

Speaking to the Sunday Times this week, Mongella, who was present at this week's PAP sitting, said that the report violated her human rights because members of the ad-hoc committee had breached standard procedure by not interviewing her before tabling the report in the house.

"I trust in God, and history will absolve me," she said on Friday.

Among some of the findings were that "unauthorised budget lines" had resulted in the assembly of the African Union cutting PAP's 2009 budget.

The report also accused Mongella of fostering a personality cult that "translates into the tendency to display a lack of respect for members of parliament".

The report said that nepotism was rife at the PAP and some staff members were recruited and promoted without the correct procedures being followed.

Despite controversy about the validity of much of the information contained in the report, PAP president Moussa Idriss Ndele adopted it.

Ndele said the report would ensure that past mistakes were not repeated.

The Midrand, Gauteng-based parliament is sitting for two weeks to debate issues related to the transformation of the PAP from an advisory to a legislative body.

"The report was not meant to blemish anyone's reputation but to assess the work of the PAP in the last five years," Ndele told a sitting of the PAP this week.

 

[Geza Ulole]

Pan-African leader accused of funds 'misuse'
Oct 31, 2009 10:04 PM | By Charles Molele
Proceedings at the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) turned nasty this week when an audit report compiled by the body's ad-hoc committee accused its founding president of misusing thousands of rands.

IRREGULARITIES: Former Pan-African Parliament head Gertrude Mongella
'I trust in God and history will absolve me' - former PAP president Mongella


The report claims that, in December last year, Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania, who was president of the PAP from its beginning in 2004 until March this year, asked the clerk of parliament for a transport allowance for her household furniture amounting to $17000.

Mongella told the clerk that the South African government had provided her with a new residence and she needed to transport her furniture from Tanzania to South Africa. However, said the ad-hoc committee, the president's residence was fully furnished and it did not need additional furniture as she claimed.

In May, Mongella is also said to have written a letter to the acting clerk of the parliament requesting money to cover transport costs for her to move her personal belongings to her house in Dar es Salaam after the end of her term in office.

She was granted R150000.

The report, which has caused consternation among members of the PAP, revealed gross irregularities in the management of the PAP's administrative, financial, institutional and political structures during Mongella's five-year term.

It paints a bleak picture of how Mongella allegedly mismanaged the PAP - an organ of the African Union - and how she undermined former AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, leading to a gradual deterioration of relations and the isolation of the PAP from the AU and its other organs.

According to the ad-hoc committee's chairman, Chief Fortune Charumbira, more than R650000 withdrawn from the PAP's trust fund account could not be accounted for by auditors.

Speaking to the Sunday Times this week, Mongella, who was present at this week's PAP sitting, said that the report violated her human rights because members of the ad-hoc committee had breached standard procedure by not interviewing her before tabling the report in the house.

"I trust in God, and history will absolve me," she said on Friday.

Among some of the findings were that "unauthorised budget lines" had resulted in the assembly of the African Union cutting PAP's 2009 budget.

The report also accused Mongella of fostering a personality cult that "translates into the tendency to display a lack of respect for members of parliament".

The report said that nepotism was rife at the PAP and some staff members were recruited and promoted without the correct procedures being followed.

Despite controversy about the validity of much of the information contained in the report, PAP president Moussa Idriss Ndele adopted it.

Ndele said the report would ensure that past mistakes were not repeated.

The Midrand, Gauteng-based parliament is sitting for two weeks to debate issues related to the transformation of the PAP from an advisory to a legislative body.

"The report was not meant to blemish anyone's reputation but to assess the work of the PAP in the last five years," Ndele told a sitting of the PAP this week.

12th October 10
Mongella atishia kumshitaki Dk. Slaa

Mwandishi Wetu

Mgombea ubunge Jimbo la Ukerewe, mkoani Mwanza kwa tiketi ya Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Getrude Mongella, amekanusha tuuma zilizotolewa dhidi yake na mgombea urais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania kupitia Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), Dk. Willibrod Slaa, kuwa aliiba samani katika ofisi ya makao makuu ya Umoja wa Afrika (AU) na kuahidi kumchukulia hatua za kisheria baada ya uchaguzi mkuu wa mwezi huu..
Mongella alitoa kauli hiyo jana wakati anautubia mkutano wa kampeni wa katika eneo la Soko Mjinga Nakatunguru.
Aidha, aliutumia mkutano huo kukanusha tuuma za kuondoka katika wadhifa wa uspika wa Bunge la Afrika kwa kashifa ya matumizi mabaya ya fedha na madaraka.
"Mimi kweli ninaweza kuiba vijiko na makochi ili vinisaidie nini na ninawaeleza kuwa baada ya pilikapilika za uchaguzi kwisha na tayari nikiwa mbunge wenu, nitamshitaki Dk. Slaa kwa kunizushia na kunidhalilisha," aliwaeleza wananchi wachache waliohudhuria katika mkutano huo.
Tishio hilo la kumshitaki Dk. Slaa linafuatia tuhuma alizozitoa dhidi ya Mongella mwezi uliopita wakati akiutubia mkutano wa kampeni katika uwanja wa Getrude Mongella mjini Nansio.
Dk. Slaa aliuambia mkutano huo uliohudhuriwa na umati mkubwa wa watu kuwa Mongella muda wake alipochaguliwa kuwa spika wa AU, Watanzania walifurahi, lakini aliliaibisha taifa kwa kuondoka na samani za ndani za ofisi ya makao makuu ya AU yaliyoko Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Pia, Dk. Slaa alisema hivi sasa Serikali ya Tanzania inaripa fedha zilizotumika vibaya chini ya uongozi wake akiwa Spika wa bunge la Afrika na kuongeza kuwa pia aliondoka na kashifa ya matumizi mabaya ya madaraka kwa kuajili watu wasio na sifa na ndugu zake katika ofisi hiyo na kutumia nafasi hiyo kuwataka wapigakura wa Ukerewe wasimchague tena kuwa mbunge wao kwa maelezo kuwa hana sifa za uongozi.

NIPASHE
Mongella atishia kumshitaki Dk. Slaa

Huyu mama mbona anatapatapa mbona asiende mahakamani sasa? au ndo kilio cha mfa maji? Ushahidi wote wa wizi wake upo anawika nini? Anafanya Watanzania mambumbu sio?

 

[Ndinani]

Huyu mama hafai kabisa ametutia aibu Taifa zima kwa wizi wake alipokuwa huko kwenye baraza la AU; angekuwa kwenye chama chenye maadili hata asingeteuliwa kugombea ubunge!!

 

[Osaka]

Huyu mama hafai kabisa ametutia aibu Taifa zima kwa wizi wake alipokuwa huko kwenye baraza la AU; angekuwa kwenye chama chenye maadili hata asingeteuliwa kugombea ubunge!!

Kaazi kweli kweli.

 

[Patriot]

Hiyo ndo tabia ya Gertrude Mongela

 

[Janjaweed]

Hiyo ndo tabia ya Gertrude Mongela

Mbona leo umeamka na huyu mama?

Kwema?

 

[Patriot]

Mbona leo umeamka na huyu mama?

Kwema?

Kuna thrd watu fulani wanamsifu kwa maneno ya jukwaa moja, bila kuangalia historia yake. Nchi hii ukijitokeza siku moja unatukana Samia, unaitwa shujaa.