Nilidhani ungekimbia kwenye site ya gazeti usome. Haya hiyo hapo
1st witness: all payments were made before BoT board's approval
Former Bank of Tanzania Director of Personnel and Administration Mr Amatus Liyumba consults with his defence counsels during a brief recess yesterday at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates Court in Dar es salaam yesterday. They are from left Onesmo Kyauke, Hilary Mkatte and Hudson Ndusyepo. (Photo by Muhidin Issa Michuzi)Most ReadMore News
ABOUBAKAR FAMAU & BETTY BHOKE, 22nd October 2009 @ 10:46
Lastly, the first witness testified in the case involving the BoT scandal today, revealing to the Kisutu court that all the payments made during the controversial building of the Twin Towers were made before the approval of the BOT board of directors.
The witness, Mr Seif Kassanga who introduced himself as a civil engineer and an investigator, said that he officially took on the responsibility as a PCCB agent probing the construction of the 10 Mirambo Twin Towers in June, 2008.
The man at the center of the case is Amatus Liyumba, the former Director of Personnel and Administration of Bank of Tanzania currently is accused of causing to the government a loss of 221bn/-.
Mr. Kassanga told the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's in Dar es Salaam that his investigation concluded that, Liyumba had caused a total loss of 253.9 million US dollars as part of the alterations made to the contract.
The alterations included the addition of four extra storeys in each tower making them to eighteen storeys instead of fourteen, helicopter landing pad on top of each tower, extra basement in both the car park and the conference with the addition of granite tiles on the walls instead of normal plastering and paintings. The initial cost of the project was 73.6 million USD.
While presenting a certified copy of the contract as an exhibit before the panel of the magistrates led by Mr Edson Mkasimwongwa, there was out right objection from the defence side.
The court was told by the defence led by advocate Hilary Mkate that, it can not consider a certified copy of the contract before seeing the original version and questioned the credibility of the witness for having presented a certified copy since he was not the custodian of the original copy.
The argument reigned, led to the adjournment of the court for twenty five minutes whereby after resuming it ruled out accepting it because it was certified by the reliable and experienced advocate therefore placed no doubt on the document.
During the cross examination, Mr. Kasanga, admitted that, Liyumbas case had no corruption linkage but his offense is related to corrupt transaction.
Mr. Mkate questioned how the accused could have made all those major financial decisions by himself without prior authority from his boss who was by then, the late governor Dr. Daudi Balali. With these questions, Mr. Kasanga seemed to have run short of words and remained speechless.
Realizing that Liyumba was only a junior staff at the BoT and not a member in the board of directors, only working on orders from his superiors, Mr. Mkate further was prompted to question, whether Liyumbas execution of the orders was an insubordination or obedience to his superiors.
When asked how the accused caused a loss to the alleged government, he still had no appropriate answer to the question and insisted that, his conclusion is based on a series of letters he claimed to have been written by Liyumba to the Consultancy ordering them to make the alterations.
The witness was seen mumbling amid cheers from the public gallery when he was asked why the board was not brave enough to object the changes since their presence in the board of directors was to safeguard the interest of the government.
Mr. Kasanga claimed to be in possession of some minutes of the meetings of the BoT board of directors reprimanding the negligence of the BoT administration regarding the alteration of the contract and the series of payments being without their approval. When asked to produce them, he failed and claimed some of the minutes bore no signatures.
Ironically, even the witness as a civil engineer gave a testimony that with the alteration to the new towers, it has only added value hence prompting an obvious question from both the panel of magistrate and the defensive side as to what loss therefore Liyumba had caused to the government.
As the witness was busy biting his tongue, Mr. Mkate sarcastically said, mchezo mumeuanza wenyewe hakikisha munaucheza vizuri, literary meaning, they had started the game they should make sure they play tactfully.
On the occasion, the witness clarified that, during his investigation, he did not realized that, any of the BoT board members was involved in the scandal.
Although during his investigation, he interrogated Prof. Michael Shirima, Letis Rutashobya. The BoT Director of Finance Elisa Sangiya was also among the interrogated and he claimed to have been sidelined in the whole process.
The testimony that lasted for more than five hours was adjourned until tomorrow to pave to for the second witness.