The Radar Scandal: Investigation & Progress

[Zogwale]

Natamani na akina Chenge, et al ...walioshiriki wote washitakiwe Uingereza. Naamini kule haki itatendeka. Pia angalao watumie vijisenti vyao kusafiri kuelekea uingereza kwa case. Wana mihela bana.

Na kaka yake kazi yake imeshatangazwa!!! Angalao atakuwa ameshaachia ngazi shirika letu tukufu. Sijui ndiyo maandalizi hayo kama yale ya kina Mgonja!!??

 

[Choveki]

Re: BAE Tanzania $12 million bribe: Je zitarudi?

Siyo $12 000 000 tu ni pamoja na bei ambayo Tanzania ilinunulia hiyo Radar, kwani ilikubwa kubwa zaidi!, Yaani BAE systems walipotoa hiyo rushwa ya $12 000 000 wakauza hiyo Radar bei kubwa zaidi kwani vilaza wetu (((oooops, sorry, viongozi wetu)))) walishapata fumba macho yao wakakaa kimya kama mazezeta tu.

Hii Radar kwa wengi wao ((( yaani hao vilaza))) imekuwa Jinamizi kwao lisilokwisha... Nina uhakika wengi wao wakisikia neno "RADAR!!", tayari wanaanza kupata mshinikizo wa damu!!! Nami nawaambia na hapo bado, kwani wameweka roho zao rehani kwa shetani.

 

[haibreus]

I'm really tired of this country, and really i dont know the future,i think we need to fight for liberating this county.we need to get rid of this people yani, I argue Tanzanians to awake and fight!

Nitakuwa mstari wa mbele!!!!!!

 

[haibreus]

Wee kwanini useme chadema na c cuf? Ukitoa maoni usijipendelee waache wachangiaji wakupendelee

yani me ndo siataki hata kulisikia hilo dudu CCM yani zaidi ya 40 years tangu uhuru nchi inanuka kuliko chooo.bora chama chochote na sio CCM.
mi napendelea tutumie nguvu sasa maana hawa jamaa wanatuzidi kwa vihela vyao

 

[Idimi]

Hii ishu ya radar nimeisikia jana katika taarifa ya BBC, kwamba jamaa wa BAE Systems wanafikishwa mahakamani wiki ijayo.

Hawa jamaa wameshiriki mikataba ya kifisadi maeneo mengi sana, sio Tanzania pekee. Kwa taarifa za jana kutoka BBC ni kwamba SFO wameomba kibali cha kuwabeba mashahidi wa Tanzania kwenda kutoa ushahidi katika kesi hii.

Sijajua serikali italichukuliaje suala hili.

Ningependa kushuhudia mwisho wake, akina Chenge wakifikishwa kortini!

 

[NgomaNzito]

BAE dogfight on bribery charges as arms giant battles to save 30,000 UK jobs after fraud office vows to prosecute

By Matthew Hickley and Rupert Steiner
02nd October 2009

Defence giant BAE Systems has pledged to fight Britain's largest corruption case to save tens of thousands of jobs.

The Serious Fraud Office yesterday announced plans to prosecute the arms contractor over alleged bribes linked to a string of deals around the world.

The firm has been involved in months of negotiations with the SFO, but has so far refused to agree on a plea bargain and a fine.

BAE is the world's second largest arms company, employing 105,000 workers, including 32,000 in the UK.

It supplies personal equipment for British soldiers, and warships, fighter jets and submarines to more than 100 countries.


Check hivi vibabu ndio vilivyokuwa vikitoa rushwa

 

[Invisible]

Who is BAE?

It claims to be the world's second-biggest arms company, with revenues of more than £18bn last year from warplanes, ships, submarines and tanks. Although it is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Made in Britain", it is equally big in the US.

What is it accused of?

Ever since 2003, a flood of allegations has emerged that BAE has paid bribes to foreign politicians and officials, in order to secure arms sales all over the world.

Which countries are involved?

Bribery allegations have surfaced in virtually every country to which BAE has sold arms, particularly Saudi Arabia. But criminal charges are likely to focus on the Czech Republic, which leased Anglo-Swedish Gripen warplanes, and Tanzania, which bought a military radar system.

Why are prosecutions now in prospect?

Richard Alderman, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, has run out of patience with foot-dragging negotiations. He wanted a US-style plea deal, under which BAE would hand over big cash penalties and promise reform. In return, the firm would get the SFO off its back, and restore its reputation. But BAE would not play ball and failed to meet an SFO deadline to settle the case.

Who runs BAE?

At the time of the corruption allegations, the company's chairman, Sir Richard Evans, and chief executive, Mike Turner, were the key figures. Both have since moved on, and the current chairman, Dick Olver, has tried to present a different face to the firm.

What does BAE say?

As little as possible. For several years, the company would only repeat one simple line – that it denied all wrongdoing. More recently, it has claimed to be co-operating with investigators and says it wants the criminal inquiry "to run its course".

See the SFO Report on this saga:

You may be interested to get all 11 pages of this report, pls download from the attachment below: (Only registered members can download)

 

[MiratKad]

Invisible - THANK YOU.

Here JK himself should be accountable for protecting these kind of people, everything is clear. Chenge clearly accepted huge bribe and must be lying to the parliament records on how much money he actually has. How cant people see this and vote out these criminals?

What is that TAKURURU and Hosea doing, are they all determined to see Tanzania dead and buried?

 

[Invisible]

Mkuu MK,

Mambo ya Tanzania yanachanganya sana... I can't even tell!

Meanwhile,

No quick fix for Tanzania’s broken radar

Written by Erick Kabendera in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
October 2, 2009

From the departure lounge of Julius Nyerere international airport in Dar es Salaam, the radar system at the centre of the furore certainly does not look like much. Atop a drab grey building about 20ft by 20ft between the runways, a radar antenna rotates slowly.

And sometimes it does not. For part of 2007, the radar worked only intermittently, hobbled by Tanzania’s erratic power supply and a faulty back-up battery provided by BAE, according to an airport employee. Repairs were delayed because no one knew how to fix the equipment.

By all accounts, the system was unnecessary — Tanzania’s tiny air force already had radar. Now that the Serious Fraud Office is asking the Government to prosecute BAE, Tanzanian politicians who have long opposed the deal are considering investigations of their own. “We did not need the facility because we are a poor country and we couldn’t afford it,” Wilbroad Slaa, a Member of Parliament, said.

The $40 million Tanzania paid BAE equals about half the amount it receives in debt relief annually.


Source: TimesOnline

 

[makoye2009]

You know what?
This country is cursed by itself. When this Radar saga surfaced during BMW(Ben William Mkapa) reign of terror I was among those who opposed the purchase of the unnecessary white elephant.

The then Minister for Finance and the Attorney General who were Mramba and Chenge respectively defended the purchase in the Cabinet only to be opposed by the minority few. I remember also in the UK how the Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time opposed the same in the House of Commons but no one dared to listen to her, even the PM of that time Tony Blair didn't glimpse on what was hidden in that business.

Now the SFO are really in business,they are turning the whole thing upside down. Let Mkapa,Chenge,Mramba and Mwandosya face the music.

Siku zote njia ya mwongo ni fupi.

Wasaalamu.

 

[Mchili]

This is ridiculous, yaani Waingereza ndio wanatuhurumia wanapambana na wahalifu wetu!!!!!. Kina Chenge wanapeta mjengoni na Dr. Rashid ndio kakabidhiwa dhamana ya kuongoza shirika kubwa kabisa bado tunasema kuna Takukuru?

Kwa nini Takukuru isivunjiliwe mbali tukasave gharama?

 

[NgomaNzito]

Check wananchi wa Uk wanavyolalamika!!

Tanzania is DFID's largest programme in Africa, and the UK is the largest bilateral donor providing budget support to Tanzania. Through DFID, the UK Government contributed £103.5 million (approximately TSh 230 billion) to the Government of Tanzania in July 2009. Apart from these funds, an additional £46.5 million has been allocated to other projects in the country this year.

• ............£103.5 million + £46.5 million is a lot of money for a small country like the UK to give in AID - where is OUR government borrowing this money from?

• An investigation should be made into how the Labour government is bankrupting its citizens, the elderly, poor and mentally ill are suffering in the UK – this money should be spent at home.
  

 

[BAK]

PCCB waiting in the wings

THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has said it is awaiting official communication from Britain on yesterday’s decision to file corruption charges against arms manufacturer company BAE Systems in the dubious 28 million pounds sterling (58bn/-) radar sale deal with Tanzania.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced yesterday that it will now seek consent from British Attorney General Patricia Scotland to go ahead and prosecute BAE Systems for ”offences relating to overseas corruption”.

British investigators said they will prepare papers to be submitted to the UK attorney general once the SFO considers it ready to proceed.

Contacted for comment in Dar es Salaam, PCCB Director General Edward Hoseah said the PCCB is now bracing for formal notification from the SFO in order to determine the way forward in the Bureau’s own investigation of the radar scandal.

”I have not received any information from the SFO. I am waiting to hear from them,” Hoseah told THISDAY, declining to comment further for the time being.

PCCB and SFO investigators are understood to have been working virtually in unison on the radar deal probe, sharing information on various key issues.

The PCCB has previously said it is very close to wrapping the probe from the Tanzanian angle.

Serious allegations of corruption and big-time bribery have for quite some time now been swirling around the 2002 transaction in which BAE Systems sold the said military radar equipment for air traffic control to the third phase government of ex-president Benjamin Mkapa.

The equipment was branded a ”waste of money” by the World Bank, amongst others.

The SFO investigation has reportedly focused on whether the Tanzanian government was overcharged in the deal, and whether alleged commissions of around 30 per cent may have been paid into a Swiss bank to smoothen the deal.

Some $12m (approx. 15bn/-) in illegal kickbacks paid to the ’middleman’ involved, one Shailesh Vithlani, are believed to have been used to bribe senior Tanzanian government officials to approve the deal.

The SFO has already identified at least four prominent Tanzanian personalities believed to have been involved in the deal. They include Vithlani, now in hiding in Europe with an international arrest warrant hanging over his head; his former business partner Tanil Somaiya, former attorney general Andrew Chenge, and ex-Bank of Tanzania (BoT) governor Dr Idris Rashidi.

Reacting to the latest developments in London, the deputy leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Dr Wilbrod Slaa, called on PCCB to waste no more time in indicting high-profile suspects already linked to the radar corruption scandal.

"It would be a major embarrassment for the PCCB people if, after so much time and resources used so far, their long-running investigation of this case does not bear any dividends," Slaa told THISDAY in an interview yesterday.

In the wake of a recent public statement by President Jakaya Kikwete that 'two or three' major corruption cases are on the threshold of prosecution, various well-placed government officials have come out into the open to state that indictments in the radar case are now imminent.

Earlier this year, the PCCB unsuccessfully sought consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Eliezer Feleshi to file criminal charges against suspects in the same case.

It is understood that the Bureau is now expected to submit a fresh application to the DPP’s office ”soon” for prosecutions to formally begin in the radar case.

Officials say PCCB has asked for mutual legal assistance from the SFO to gain access to important information and documents on foreign aspects of the radar deal in order to build a watertight case for prosecution.

Reports from London say the SFO is also gearing to prosecute BAE Systems for alleged corruption and bribery behind a warplanes lease deal with the Czech Republic, the sale of two frigates to Romania, and a weapons deal with South Africa.

According to yesterday’s SFO statement: ”The SFO intends to seek the (British) attorney general’s consent to prosecute BAE Systems for offences relating to overseas corruption, and will prepare its papers to be submitted to the AG when the SFO considers it is ready to proceed. This follows investigation carried out by the SFO into business activities of BAE Systems in Africa and eastern Europe.”

The decision is seen as a make-or-break move for the agency, which has spent the last six years - under two different directors - trying to resolve allegations against one of the world’s most powerful arms supplying companies.

The SFO must gain the formal consent of the UK’s attorney general to press charges.

But the SFO’s statement that, in effect, it is not yet ready to make a formal submission to the AG, leaves the door open for BAE Systems to return to the negotiating table.

In its own statement, BAE insisted it had "at all times acted responsibly in its dealings with the SFO, taking into account the interests of its shareholders and employees and the legal advice it has received.”

”The company notes the announcement by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and continues to expend considerable effort seeking to resolve, at the earliest opportunity, the historical matters under investigation by the SFO," the statement said.

It said if a prosecution is launched, the company will ”deal with any issues raised in those proceedings at the appropriate time and, if necessary, in court”.

BAE was the biggest faller on the London Stock Market yesterday morning, down nearly five per cent.

This is the first time BAE as a company has directly faced the prospect of prosecution. In 2006, the SFO was forced to drop investigations into BAE’s biggest arms deals in Saudi Arabia. Tony Blair, the then British prime minister, effectively granted immunity to the Saudi ruling family.

Negotiations on other outstanding cases broke down when BAE failed to meet SFO’s September 30 midnight deadline to make a deal or face the courts.

Behind the scenes, there has been a high-stakes battle between BAE and SFO - the British agency entrusted with eradicating foreign bribery - to see if a US-style plea bargain could be quietly negotiated.

For the SFO, a key element of an acceptable settlement package is understood to be the payment of large financial penalties, possibly of more than 500 million pounds sterling in the case of a company the size of BAE.

Based on revenue last year, BAE Systems Plc is currently the world’s number two defence company behind US-based Lockheed Martin, and remains Europe’s largest defence conglomerate.

The company builds combat aircraft such as the Typhoon and the Tornado, as well as armoured combat vehicles, nuclear attack submarines and other military equipment.

The US Justice Department is understood to have also been running a parallel investigation into BAE Systems, which has a major US presence as an arms supplier to the Pentagon.

The Washington investigation has so far yielded no results, however.

 

[Ndahani]

Kazi ipo. Ila tumekuwa wagumu kujifunza maana kama watu walijua yaliyotokea kipindi kilichopita, kulikuwa na haja gani ya kuendelea kutengeneza rishwa nyingine zisizo na mpango

 

[FirstLady1]

Tatizo lao wanajua watu wote tumelala haipo siku tunaweza amka toka katika usingizi

 

[S.M.P2503]

PCCB wamefanyiwa kazi mwanzo hadi mwisho.. sijui uchunguzi gani huo wanao taka kuufanya maana key suspects wote wamekwisha kuwa identified na SFO.

Ni uzembe wa hali ya juu kwa huyo bwana Hosea kusema kwamba bado hajawa notified officially na hao SFO kuhusu mwenendo wa kesi hii ya Rushwa.. Hivi ni nani aliyewatuma hawa SFO KAZI YAO ya Uchunguzi? Ni Hosea, PCCB au ni waingereza wenyewe waliamua kufanya uchunguzi wao...?

Kama ni Hosea au PCCB, yes anaweza kusema anawasubiri wamtaarifu maendeleo ya uchunguzi au kesi yenyewe.. kama ni SFO wenyewe... Hosea atakuwa mbumbuani wa kutupwa kusema hajapewa taarifa... maana hajui anayemfanyia kazi kati ya serikali ya TANZANIA, wananchi wa Tanzania au serikali ya UK na SFO yao...

wamemuandalia msosi, wakamuwekea kwenye sahani, pia kwenye kijiko na
bado Wamemtafunia lakini yeye bado anasua sua kuwafikisha mahakamani...

Cha kufanya ni kuwaomba ushahidi (evidential exchange na SFO) ili autumie kuwafikisha mahakamani hao wahusika hata wakiwa tried in absentia...

 

[Tongue blister]

Nadhani aliyetoa wazo la Mapinduzi tunge muunga mkono..!! Hawa Viongozi wetu hawana tofauti na wanyama.

 

[Malafyale]

Ujinga mtupu eti !

"PCCB has said it is awaiting official communication from Britain on yesterday's decision to file corruption charges against arms manufacturer company BAE Systems in the dubious 28 million pounds sterling (58bn/-) radar sale deal with"

Chenge longtime kakubali kabisa kuwa hela zaidi ya dola million 1 zilizokutwa kule kisiwani ni zake na kashindwa kutolea ufafanuzi kwa vyanzo gani vya mapato mtumishi wa serikali ya TZ anaweza kujilimbikizia dola million moja na lkn hadi sasa hajachukuliwa hatua za kisheria!

PCCB wapo kuwalinda akina "Chenge"na wakae kimywa tu!

 

[Eric Cartman]

Hii issue imekaa hovyo mno kwa UK, nimesoma wanasema issue ya Middle East kwanza ilishazuiwa na Tony Blair kwa kipingamizi cha national security.

Pili wahusika wengi are no longer working there anymore.

Tatu jamaa walikua tayari ku-settle the score with SFO lakini the amount they asked for was rediculous, hivyo BAE wamesema bring it (In the court).

Nne the SFO so far haven't the sufficient evidence on who's responsible for what exactly hivyo inaonekana ulikua mkwara tu at first kwani BAE washasema hiyo hela aito lipwa labda waje na tens of millions lakini sio a billion compensation.

Mwisho sidhani kama hii kesi inaweza pewa public inquiry kama mtakumbuka mlio UK Tony Blair backed alot of this deals particularly the radar one which was not well received with many MP's. Sasa inaonekana some will be prevented from court evidence its a battle that i do not see the 'SFO' winning. Ndio maana BAE wameleta jeuri ya kwamba wa waende mahakamani wakitaka.

 

[Ulimbo]

Kw mfano huyo chenge alijiuzuru klwa sababu ya kashifa hiyo. Eti leo bado yumo kwenye kamati ya maadili ya ccm. jamani hiyo ccm itatufikisha wapi . tumechoka tunataka mabadiriko . Naomba tujaribu Chadema

hayo ndo maadili ya ccm, maana wlioko madarakani karibu wote ni zao la ufisadi tu.