Leaders` Ethics watchdog mum on minister Chenge
2008-04-18 09:30:50
By Angel Navuri
The Public Leaders` Ethics Secretariat has remained tight-lipped on whether the Infrastructure Development minister Andrew Chenge has ever declared the 1.2bn/- he is reported to have deposited in an overseas bank account.
The law governing the public leadership code of ethics requires ministers and Members of Parliament to declare their wealth upon assuming office.
Judge Stephen Ihema, the secretariat`s commissioner, has for three days running been reluctant to respond to questions from journalists on the matter.
When approached for comment yesterday, he told this reporter through his public relations officer to draft her questions and bring them to his office.
According to sources, many questions have been forwarded to the office from different media houses since last week but no response had been forthcoming.
Judge Ihema is the secretariat`s spokesperson and effectively the only person who could answer the questions.
The Minister of State in the Presidents Office (Good Governance), Sofia Simba, meanwhile told The Guardian yesterday that the secretariat was the relevant institution to explain whether Chenge had declared the money as part of his wealth.
The secretariat``s key functions include monitoring public leaders abuses of power, accountability and transparency.
The allegations against Chenge were first reported by the Guardian newspaper of the UK, which revealed that British investigators involved in a three-year inquiry over the controversial sale of a military radar to Tanzania had located more than $1m in his account in Jersey.
Chenge, Tanzania`s Attorney General for ten years until his ministerial appointment, told journalists on his return from China on Wednesday that the allegations were ``too serious`` and that he needed time to respond to them.
The embattled minister was in China as part of President Jakaya Kikwete's entourage on an official visit there when details of his foreign offshore bank account made newspaper headlines in Tanzania.
In his remarks on Wednesday he said he believed ``these baseless and malicious`` allegations related to the purchase of the radar from UK`s leading arms manufacturers, BAE Systems. He swore to fight back.
As AG, Chenge was the government`s chief legal advisor when the 28 million pounds sterling (approx. 70bn/-) radar was purchased at what is alleged to be a massively inflated price.
SOURCE: Guardian