Susuviri
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 6, 2007
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By Bernard James
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two other cabinet ministers are being sued over the $2.6bn (about Sh3.3 trillion) Dar es Salaam-Mwanza petroleum pipeline.
Sued alongside Lowassa are the minister for East African Cooperation Dr Ibrahim Msabaha and the minister for Economic Planning and Empowerment, Dr Juma Ngasongwa.
They are listed as defendants in a high profile suit by Africommerce International Ltd, a private company that unsuccessfully fought to obtain the tender for the mammoth petroleum products project to which it claims originality.
The company filed the suit at the High Court last Friday, setting the stage for a major legal tussle with the government and a consortium of five international oil merchant firms that won the government tender for the project.
Africommerce International is accusing the three leading cabinet ministers of colluding with competitors to divest the petroleum project that comes with a full oil refinery plant.
Among other things, the company has sought court orders to prohibit premier Lowassa from interfering with what its constitutional rights, acts they claimed had already deprived the firm of an opportunity to run the project.
In a sworn affidavit drawn and filed by the company?s executive director Mr Elisante Elikana Muro, the company wants the court to declare it entitled to construct the pipeline as shown in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the company had signed with the government. Africommerce International Ltd accuses the premier of illegally denying the company the project and approved a consortium of four foreign companies.
It challenges a decision of the National Investment Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the premier to deny him the project it had worked on for 24 years.
The director is also challenging a one-sided decision by Dr Ngasongwa when he signed a new agreement for the project in April with Qatar-based company-Noor Oil Industrial Technology Ltd.
Other respondents in the suit are the permanent secretary in the ministry of Economic Planning and Empowerment, Ambassador Charles Mutalemwa, the Tanzania Green Co. Ltd, M/S Noor Oil Industrial Technology and three others, and the Attorney General.
Mr Muro claims in the suit to be the creator and sponsor of the project after he conceived the idea back in 1983. He asserts that during all this time he has worked on the project in association with other international companies and that by July 1998 he had spent $16.53million in the project.
The money was spent to establish and develop the project, including relevant costs on its technical and economic feasibility and carrying out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study for the project.
To show how far the company had gone with the project, a permit from the Tanzania People's Defence Force allowing the company to pass through military restricted areas as the construction started was attached to the plaint.
The plaint says that things started going wrong on 30th July 2004 when the then minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr Daniel Yona signed a MoU with the US based Richmond Development Company (RDC).
Under the MoU RDC was granted exclusive rights to develop and construct the pipeline in what Mr Muro argues was done in total disregard of the exclusive rights granted to him earlier.
Strong protest by the company over minister Yona?s decision drew the sympathy of the Lake Zone Parliamentary Finance and Economic committee to seek the quashing of the decision of the minister in 2005, it further submitted.
The committee directed that the company be given the opportunity and exclusive rights to the project.Minutes of the committee recorded on February 19, 2005 forms part of the suit. Still standing on his side, the parliamentary committee for public finance and economy at its meeting in Dodoma in July 2005 made deliberations on the project.
The committee resolved that Africommerce be given an equitable opportunity and right to the project since it has already made huge investments in the project.
Mr Muro maintains that the decisions by the two committees in his favour had pursuaded Mr Msabaha to draft the MoU for the project in April last year.
Dreams by Africommerce International Limited to develop and constructing the pipeline evaporated in February at the National Investment Steering Committee in Dodoma chaired by Mr Lowassa.
At the meeting, claims Muro, Lowassa divested the pioneering local firm and approved that the project be built by MS Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company of Qatar, Stroystrangas Public Corporation and ZakneFlegas-Prometery both of Russia and Roneg Tag of Germany.
Two days later, minister Ngasongwa was quoted by the media as saying Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company was a lead company of the four other companies and that it will construct the pipeline.
The Tanzania Green Company was listed as among companies set to build the controversial pipeline project.Lowassa?s decision against the company was publicly criticized by the company. The company announced in February that it was not ready to desist from the pipeline project it had worked upon for 24years. Dr Ngasongwa and his permanent secretary Mr Mutalemwa signed an agreement on behalf of the government for the construction of an oil refinery and a construction petroleum products pipeline with Noor. Muro argues that the reasons given by Mr Lowassa for divesting the firm in favour of the four companies were "unconstitutional, arbitrary and precipitated by bias and irrational sentiments."
He argues that premier Lowassa, Dr Msabaha, Dr Ngasongwa and Ambassador Mutalemwa denied him his constitutional rights to continue developing the project contrary, to established procedure known under law as fairness and equity.
He challenges the unilateral decision by Dr Ngasongwa and Mr Mutalemwa of signing another agreement without according him an opportunity to be heard. He sees the act as failure to act in accordance with principles of natural justice.
?The act of denying the applicant his project is not only unreasonable, arbitrary, unfair and illegal but also beyond human comprehension," the suit notably declares. The Miscellaneous Civil Application numbered 83/2007 is assigned to High Court Judge William Mandia.
Elaborating on the genesis and development of the project, the suit says the company had put total estimates for the entire investment to $400million (Sh400 billion) with the return of the investment starting to "trickle down" after seven years.
By Bernard James
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two other cabinet ministers are being sued over the $2.6bn (about Sh3.3 trillion) Dar es Salaam-Mwanza petroleum pipeline.
Sued alongside Lowassa are the minister for East African Cooperation Dr Ibrahim Msabaha and the minister for Economic Planning and Empowerment, Dr Juma Ngasongwa.
They are listed as defendants in a high profile suit by Africommerce International Ltd, a private company that unsuccessfully fought to obtain the tender for the mammoth petroleum products project to which it claims originality.
The company filed the suit at the High Court last Friday, setting the stage for a major legal tussle with the government and a consortium of five international oil merchant firms that won the government tender for the project.
Africommerce International is accusing the three leading cabinet ministers of colluding with competitors to divest the petroleum project that comes with a full oil refinery plant.
Among other things, the company has sought court orders to prohibit premier Lowassa from interfering with what its constitutional rights, acts they claimed had already deprived the firm of an opportunity to run the project.
In a sworn affidavit drawn and filed by the company?s executive director Mr Elisante Elikana Muro, the company wants the court to declare it entitled to construct the pipeline as shown in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the company had signed with the government. Africommerce International Ltd accuses the premier of illegally denying the company the project and approved a consortium of four foreign companies.
It challenges a decision of the National Investment Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the premier to deny him the project it had worked on for 24 years.
The director is also challenging a one-sided decision by Dr Ngasongwa when he signed a new agreement for the project in April with Qatar-based company-Noor Oil Industrial Technology Ltd.
Other respondents in the suit are the permanent secretary in the ministry of Economic Planning and Empowerment, Ambassador Charles Mutalemwa, the Tanzania Green Co. Ltd, M/S Noor Oil Industrial Technology and three others, and the Attorney General.
Mr Muro claims in the suit to be the creator and sponsor of the project after he conceived the idea back in 1983. He asserts that during all this time he has worked on the project in association with other international companies and that by July 1998 he had spent $16.53million in the project.
The money was spent to establish and develop the project, including relevant costs on its technical and economic feasibility and carrying out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study for the project.
To show how far the company had gone with the project, a permit from the Tanzania People's Defence Force allowing the company to pass through military restricted areas as the construction started was attached to the plaint.
The plaint says that things started going wrong on 30th July 2004 when the then minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr Daniel Yona signed a MoU with the US based Richmond Development Company (RDC).
Under the MoU RDC was granted exclusive rights to develop and construct the pipeline in what Mr Muro argues was done in total disregard of the exclusive rights granted to him earlier.
Strong protest by the company over minister Yona?s decision drew the sympathy of the Lake Zone Parliamentary Finance and Economic committee to seek the quashing of the decision of the minister in 2005, it further submitted.
The committee directed that the company be given the opportunity and exclusive rights to the project.Minutes of the committee recorded on February 19, 2005 forms part of the suit. Still standing on his side, the parliamentary committee for public finance and economy at its meeting in Dodoma in July 2005 made deliberations on the project.
The committee resolved that Africommerce be given an equitable opportunity and right to the project since it has already made huge investments in the project.
Mr Muro maintains that the decisions by the two committees in his favour had pursuaded Mr Msabaha to draft the MoU for the project in April last year.
Dreams by Africommerce International Limited to develop and constructing the pipeline evaporated in February at the National Investment Steering Committee in Dodoma chaired by Mr Lowassa.
At the meeting, claims Muro, Lowassa divested the pioneering local firm and approved that the project be built by MS Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company of Qatar, Stroystrangas Public Corporation and ZakneFlegas-Prometery both of Russia and Roneg Tag of Germany.
Two days later, minister Ngasongwa was quoted by the media as saying Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company was a lead company of the four other companies and that it will construct the pipeline.
The Tanzania Green Company was listed as among companies set to build the controversial pipeline project.Lowassa?s decision against the company was publicly criticized by the company. The company announced in February that it was not ready to desist from the pipeline project it had worked upon for 24years. Dr Ngasongwa and his permanent secretary Mr Mutalemwa signed an agreement on behalf of the government for the construction of an oil refinery and a construction petroleum products pipeline with Noor. Muro argues that the reasons given by Mr Lowassa for divesting the firm in favour of the four companies were "unconstitutional, arbitrary and precipitated by bias and irrational sentiments."
He argues that premier Lowassa, Dr Msabaha, Dr Ngasongwa and Ambassador Mutalemwa denied him his constitutional rights to continue developing the project contrary, to established procedure known under law as fairness and equity.
He challenges the unilateral decision by Dr Ngasongwa and Mr Mutalemwa of signing another agreement without according him an opportunity to be heard. He sees the act as failure to act in accordance with principles of natural justice.
?The act of denying the applicant his project is not only unreasonable, arbitrary, unfair and illegal but also beyond human comprehension," the suit notably declares. The Miscellaneous Civil Application numbered 83/2007 is assigned to High Court Judge William Mandia.
Elaborating on the genesis and development of the project, the suit says the company had put total estimates for the entire investment to $400million (Sh400 billion) with the return of the investment starting to "trickle down" after seven years.
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/newz.php?id=848
Jamani watanzania kweli wamechoka kunyanyasika! This is good news! Watu wameacha kulalamika na kusubiri sirikali iwesaidie! Sasa tuone mahakama kama wataifanyia kazi suala hili!
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two other cabinet ministers are being sued over the $2.6bn (about Sh3.3 trillion) Dar es Salaam-Mwanza petroleum pipeline.
Sued alongside Lowassa are the minister for East African Cooperation Dr Ibrahim Msabaha and the minister for Economic Planning and Empowerment, Dr Juma Ngasongwa.
They are listed as defendants in a high profile suit by Africommerce International Ltd, a private company that unsuccessfully fought to obtain the tender for the mammoth petroleum products project to which it claims originality.
The company filed the suit at the High Court last Friday, setting the stage for a major legal tussle with the government and a consortium of five international oil merchant firms that won the government tender for the project.
Africommerce International is accusing the three leading cabinet ministers of colluding with competitors to divest the petroleum project that comes with a full oil refinery plant.
Among other things, the company has sought court orders to prohibit premier Lowassa from interfering with what its constitutional rights, acts they claimed had already deprived the firm of an opportunity to run the project.
In a sworn affidavit drawn and filed by the company?s executive director Mr Elisante Elikana Muro, the company wants the court to declare it entitled to construct the pipeline as shown in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the company had signed with the government. Africommerce International Ltd accuses the premier of illegally denying the company the project and approved a consortium of four foreign companies.
It challenges a decision of the National Investment Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the premier to deny him the project it had worked on for 24 years.
The director is also challenging a one-sided decision by Dr Ngasongwa when he signed a new agreement for the project in April with Qatar-based company-Noor Oil Industrial Technology Ltd.
Other respondents in the suit are the permanent secretary in the ministry of Economic Planning and Empowerment, Ambassador Charles Mutalemwa, the Tanzania Green Co. Ltd, M/S Noor Oil Industrial Technology and three others, and the Attorney General.
Mr Muro claims in the suit to be the creator and sponsor of the project after he conceived the idea back in 1983. He asserts that during all this time he has worked on the project in association with other international companies and that by July 1998 he had spent $16.53million in the project.
The money was spent to establish and develop the project, including relevant costs on its technical and economic feasibility and carrying out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study for the project.
To show how far the company had gone with the project, a permit from the Tanzania People's Defence Force allowing the company to pass through military restricted areas as the construction started was attached to the plaint.
The plaint says that things started going wrong on 30th July 2004 when the then minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr Daniel Yona signed a MoU with the US based Richmond Development Company (RDC).
Under the MoU RDC was granted exclusive rights to develop and construct the pipeline in what Mr Muro argues was done in total disregard of the exclusive rights granted to him earlier.
Strong protest by the company over minister Yona?s decision drew the sympathy of the Lake Zone Parliamentary Finance and Economic committee to seek the quashing of the decision of the minister in 2005, it further submitted.
The committee directed that the company be given the opportunity and exclusive rights to the project.Minutes of the committee recorded on February 19, 2005 forms part of the suit. Still standing on his side, the parliamentary committee for public finance and economy at its meeting in Dodoma in July 2005 made deliberations on the project.
The committee resolved that Africommerce be given an equitable opportunity and right to the project since it has already made huge investments in the project.
Mr Muro maintains that the decisions by the two committees in his favour had pursuaded Mr Msabaha to draft the MoU for the project in April last year.
Dreams by Africommerce International Limited to develop and constructing the pipeline evaporated in February at the National Investment Steering Committee in Dodoma chaired by Mr Lowassa.
At the meeting, claims Muro, Lowassa divested the pioneering local firm and approved that the project be built by MS Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company of Qatar, Stroystrangas Public Corporation and ZakneFlegas-Prometery both of Russia and Roneg Tag of Germany.
Two days later, minister Ngasongwa was quoted by the media as saying Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company was a lead company of the four other companies and that it will construct the pipeline.
The Tanzania Green Company was listed as among companies set to build the controversial pipeline project.Lowassa?s decision against the company was publicly criticized by the company. The company announced in February that it was not ready to desist from the pipeline project it had worked upon for 24years. Dr Ngasongwa and his permanent secretary Mr Mutalemwa signed an agreement on behalf of the government for the construction of an oil refinery and a construction petroleum products pipeline with Noor. Muro argues that the reasons given by Mr Lowassa for divesting the firm in favour of the four companies were "unconstitutional, arbitrary and precipitated by bias and irrational sentiments."
He argues that premier Lowassa, Dr Msabaha, Dr Ngasongwa and Ambassador Mutalemwa denied him his constitutional rights to continue developing the project contrary, to established procedure known under law as fairness and equity.
He challenges the unilateral decision by Dr Ngasongwa and Mr Mutalemwa of signing another agreement without according him an opportunity to be heard. He sees the act as failure to act in accordance with principles of natural justice.
?The act of denying the applicant his project is not only unreasonable, arbitrary, unfair and illegal but also beyond human comprehension," the suit notably declares. The Miscellaneous Civil Application numbered 83/2007 is assigned to High Court Judge William Mandia.
Elaborating on the genesis and development of the project, the suit says the company had put total estimates for the entire investment to $400million (Sh400 billion) with the return of the investment starting to "trickle down" after seven years.
By Bernard James
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two other cabinet ministers are being sued over the $2.6bn (about Sh3.3 trillion) Dar es Salaam-Mwanza petroleum pipeline.
Sued alongside Lowassa are the minister for East African Cooperation Dr Ibrahim Msabaha and the minister for Economic Planning and Empowerment, Dr Juma Ngasongwa.
They are listed as defendants in a high profile suit by Africommerce International Ltd, a private company that unsuccessfully fought to obtain the tender for the mammoth petroleum products project to which it claims originality.
The company filed the suit at the High Court last Friday, setting the stage for a major legal tussle with the government and a consortium of five international oil merchant firms that won the government tender for the project.
Africommerce International is accusing the three leading cabinet ministers of colluding with competitors to divest the petroleum project that comes with a full oil refinery plant.
Among other things, the company has sought court orders to prohibit premier Lowassa from interfering with what its constitutional rights, acts they claimed had already deprived the firm of an opportunity to run the project.
In a sworn affidavit drawn and filed by the company?s executive director Mr Elisante Elikana Muro, the company wants the court to declare it entitled to construct the pipeline as shown in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the company had signed with the government. Africommerce International Ltd accuses the premier of illegally denying the company the project and approved a consortium of four foreign companies.
It challenges a decision of the National Investment Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the premier to deny him the project it had worked on for 24 years.
The director is also challenging a one-sided decision by Dr Ngasongwa when he signed a new agreement for the project in April with Qatar-based company-Noor Oil Industrial Technology Ltd.
Other respondents in the suit are the permanent secretary in the ministry of Economic Planning and Empowerment, Ambassador Charles Mutalemwa, the Tanzania Green Co. Ltd, M/S Noor Oil Industrial Technology and three others, and the Attorney General.
Mr Muro claims in the suit to be the creator and sponsor of the project after he conceived the idea back in 1983. He asserts that during all this time he has worked on the project in association with other international companies and that by July 1998 he had spent $16.53million in the project.
The money was spent to establish and develop the project, including relevant costs on its technical and economic feasibility and carrying out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study for the project.
To show how far the company had gone with the project, a permit from the Tanzania People's Defence Force allowing the company to pass through military restricted areas as the construction started was attached to the plaint.
The plaint says that things started going wrong on 30th July 2004 when the then minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr Daniel Yona signed a MoU with the US based Richmond Development Company (RDC).
Under the MoU RDC was granted exclusive rights to develop and construct the pipeline in what Mr Muro argues was done in total disregard of the exclusive rights granted to him earlier.
Strong protest by the company over minister Yona?s decision drew the sympathy of the Lake Zone Parliamentary Finance and Economic committee to seek the quashing of the decision of the minister in 2005, it further submitted.
The committee directed that the company be given the opportunity and exclusive rights to the project.Minutes of the committee recorded on February 19, 2005 forms part of the suit. Still standing on his side, the parliamentary committee for public finance and economy at its meeting in Dodoma in July 2005 made deliberations on the project.
The committee resolved that Africommerce be given an equitable opportunity and right to the project since it has already made huge investments in the project.
Mr Muro maintains that the decisions by the two committees in his favour had pursuaded Mr Msabaha to draft the MoU for the project in April last year.
Dreams by Africommerce International Limited to develop and constructing the pipeline evaporated in February at the National Investment Steering Committee in Dodoma chaired by Mr Lowassa.
At the meeting, claims Muro, Lowassa divested the pioneering local firm and approved that the project be built by MS Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company of Qatar, Stroystrangas Public Corporation and ZakneFlegas-Prometery both of Russia and Roneg Tag of Germany.
Two days later, minister Ngasongwa was quoted by the media as saying Noor Oil Industrial Technology Company was a lead company of the four other companies and that it will construct the pipeline.
The Tanzania Green Company was listed as among companies set to build the controversial pipeline project.Lowassa?s decision against the company was publicly criticized by the company. The company announced in February that it was not ready to desist from the pipeline project it had worked upon for 24years. Dr Ngasongwa and his permanent secretary Mr Mutalemwa signed an agreement on behalf of the government for the construction of an oil refinery and a construction petroleum products pipeline with Noor. Muro argues that the reasons given by Mr Lowassa for divesting the firm in favour of the four companies were "unconstitutional, arbitrary and precipitated by bias and irrational sentiments."
He argues that premier Lowassa, Dr Msabaha, Dr Ngasongwa and Ambassador Mutalemwa denied him his constitutional rights to continue developing the project contrary, to established procedure known under law as fairness and equity.
He challenges the unilateral decision by Dr Ngasongwa and Mr Mutalemwa of signing another agreement without according him an opportunity to be heard. He sees the act as failure to act in accordance with principles of natural justice.
?The act of denying the applicant his project is not only unreasonable, arbitrary, unfair and illegal but also beyond human comprehension," the suit notably declares. The Miscellaneous Civil Application numbered 83/2007 is assigned to High Court Judge William Mandia.
Elaborating on the genesis and development of the project, the suit says the company had put total estimates for the entire investment to $400million (Sh400 billion) with the return of the investment starting to "trickle down" after seven years.
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/newz.php?id=848
Jamani watanzania kweli wamechoka kunyanyasika! This is good news! Watu wameacha kulalamika na kusubiri sirikali iwesaidie! Sasa tuone mahakama kama wataifanyia kazi suala hili!
