Controversial Richmond deal: I wasn`t involved, says PM Lowassa
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
THE Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, has categorically denied personal involvement in the awarding of the highly-controversial power generation contract to Richmond Development Company last year.
In a written statement to THISDAY issued through his press secretary over the weekend, premier Lowassa said he did not have anything to do with the signing of the contract with the US-registered company, nor did he influence the process.
The prime minister was never involved in the Richmond negotiations. All he did was to assume a general, overseeing role in government efforts to ensure the power shortage problems afflicting the country at the time were urgently addressed, press secretary Saidi Nguba said.
The weekend statement from the Prime Ministers Office in Dar es Salaam was in response to a report published in last Thursdays edition of THISDAY on fresh revelations of high-level government meddling in the process leading up to the tender award for Richmond to inject 100MW of thermal plant electricity into the national grid.
As the report stated, the revelations are contained in a new report prepared by the state-run Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), which outlines the existence of significant political influence and clear interference by higher authorities in the tendering process.
However, the THISDAY report did not in any way mention Lowassa as having been the influencing factor. It merely stated the fact that it was the premier who appointed the government task force that oversaw the negotiations leading up to the eventual contract award.
Members of the three-man task force were the then permanent secretaries in the Treasury and the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Gray Mgonja and Patrick Rutabanzibwa respectively, as well as attorney-general Johnson Mwanyika.
According to the PPRA report, the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) was eventually ordered to enter into the deal with Richmond even though the power utility firm itself had already conclusively established that Richmond was non-responsive to the bid requirements and unable to deliver the services required.
The report cites higher authorities as being behind the whole deal, but stops short of identifying any particular government leader(s) involved.
The PMO statement also censured THISDAY for reviving the issue of corruption allegations related to the Richmond deal even after the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has already declared it to have been clean and devoid of corruption, after conducting its own investigation in the face of a public outcry.
The PCCB declaration was made last May - three months before the PPRA report was prepared (August 2007).