FORMER senior cabinet minister Basil Mramba is under investigation over corruption allegations dating back to his days as finance minister in the third phase government of ex-president Benjamin Mkapa, it has been confirmed.
Well-placed government sources told THISDAY that an official investigation of the 68-year-old Rombo Member of Parliament has already reached a ''very advanced stage.''
It is understood that a formal probe by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has focused specifically on corruption allegations against Mramba linked to his five-year tenure as finance minister in the Mkapa administration from 2000 to 2005.
Before being appointed finance minister, Mramba served as minister for industries and trade under Mkapa from 1995 to 2000.
From 2006, he served as minister for infrastructure development in the new fourth phase government of President Jakaya Kikwete, and later reappointed minister in charge of industry, trade and marketing, before eventually being dropped during the dissolution and re-composition of the cabinet last February.
According to our sources, however, the PCCB investigation is particularly targeting corruption allegations against the veteran politician during his stint as finance minister in the third phase government.
While the PCCB Director General, Edward Hoseah, was yesterday not immediately available for comment, our sources described the allegations against Mramba as ''quite serious.''
Mramba headed the finance ministry during the entire second and final term of the Mkapa presidency - a period already heavily clouded by allegations of high-level corruption and dubious government dealings.
Some of the allegations that dogged the establishment during this period include the dubious contract with Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation; the external payment arrears (EPA) account scandal, and the 70bn/- military radar deal.
''There are questions about how he (Mramba) granted certain tax exemptions when he was finance minister, as well as his apparent involvement in other things,'' said a source familiar with the investigation, without elaborating.
The finance ministry is also believed to have been at the heart of various other dubious deals including the 500bn/- Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Twin Towers project, the purchase of the presidential jet, and controversial guarantees given by the central bank in favour of certain private companies.
Several companies, including Meremeta Gold, TANGOLD and Deep Green Finance, are also known to have received billions of shillings from the BoT under dubious circumstances during the period heading towards the end of the third phase government's tenure.
Among other things, Mramba in person has also been linked to the controversial 15-year extension of the Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS) contract, personally ordered by then-still-president Mkapa in late 2005.
Investigations by THISDAY have already established that a significant number of dubious official payments amounting to hundreds of billions of shillings were made during the final few months and even weeks of the third phase government under Mkapa.
And according to one well-placed source: ''These payments may not necessarily have been diverted to finance the 2005 general elections, as widely believed.''
''It now appears that a huge chunk of these particular monies was actually deposited in private bank accounts controlled by some top government officials?ostensibly to guarantee them a comfortable retirement,'' said the source.