Exams council being investigated for fraud: Money also said to have been embezzled

[BAK]

Exams council being investigated for fraud: Money also said to have been embezzled

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam​

SEVERAL senior officials of the state-run National Examinations Council of Tanzania are under investigation over various allegations of misappropriation of public funds and exam fraud, and a special police task force has been formed to handle the probe, it has been revealed.

The allegations centre around suspected embezzlement and the disappearance of sensitive documents at the exams watchdog body.

NECTA, headed by its executive secretary Dr Joyce Ndalichako, has been the focus of an official investigation highlighted by national examination leakages last year.

It is understood that the probe has been more or less narrowed down to at least three senior NECTA officials. Two junior members of the council staff were reportedly arrested last week to assist ongoing investigations.

One senior official of the council under criminal investigation (name withheld for now) faces allegations of abuse of public office and occasioning a huge loss to the government.

The official has already been questioned by investigators in connection with the allegations against him.

He is said to have offered certain gifts to detectives, who in turn presented the gifts from the NECTA official to their supervisors for further action.

The investigating officers were very professional. They took the package from the official and submitted it to their supervisors as part of their investigation, said a source close to the investigation.

The Kinondoni Regional Police Commander, Mark Karunguyeye, confirmed to THISDAY about the special task force leading the investigation.

But he added: I cannot give you any information about the ongoing investigation at this stage.

The latest development comes as another government committee formed to investigate last years exam leakages is yet to make its findings public.

The committee appointed by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training was due to submit its report on December 15 last year, but has remained quiet.

The committee was supposed to investigate the disappearance of 4,000 result slips from the NECTA offices. It has already finished its work, but we havent been told anything about its findings, said an official familiar with the probe.

There are reports that attendance registers at some national Form Six examination centres in the country have also disappeared, thus threatening to delay the pending release of the exam results.