BY PATRICK KISEMBO
They said the Budget Support Group is working on the report of the Controller and Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee before reaching a position on the stalled budget support funds.
The EU said further that is was consulting with the Government of Tanzania, and once completed there will be a statement by the Chair of the donor group.
The EU response came after The Guardian thought clarification of the EU’s action after the National Assembly made the resolutions for measures to be taken against the principal suspects in the Independent Power Tanzania Limited Tegeta Escrow account saga and whether donors were ready to release funds they had withheld following the uproar.
Responding, the EU press and information officer, Susane Mbise who later referred this reporter to the Finnish Embassy as current chair of the budget support Development Partners (DP) group in Tanzania said the EU is part of the Budget Support Group which has a chair who speaks on behalf of the group.
When contacted for comment, Sinikka Antila, ambassador of Finland in Tanzania who is the current chair of the Budget Support Development Partners Group in Tanzania said: “At this stage I do not want to say much.”
The Chair of the Group which includes 12 member countries explained: “ ---except that we Budget Support DPs are encouraged by the fact that the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report was submitted to Parliament and discussed. Decisions on further disbursements will be made after assessing the situation.”
In October a group of 12 international donors delayed budget support for Tanzania until findings of an investigation into charges of corruption in the energy sector were released and appropriate action taken.
The government denied the charges of graft related to the energy sector special central bank account in question. It says it investigated the charges and comes down firmly against them.
The donor group - comprising Finland, Germany, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the European Commission, Ireland, Canada, Japan, the World Bank and the African Development Bank - has so far paid $69 million of $558 million pledged, said Kati Manner, head of cooperation at Finland's Embassy in Tanzania.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Servacius Likwelile was quoted in Washington saying that development partners were demanding Tanzania to first sort out Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) issues before they provide funds for implementation of the government budget.
The Paymaster General noted: “IPTL has no relations with our original agreements with development partners. This has only been chipped in, affecting our budget implementation situation,” he stated.
"What we are waiting for now is the findings of the CAG's (Controller and Auditor General's) report, and government action. This will inform the decision on further disbursement of funds," the envoy, whose country currently leads the donor group, told Reuters.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda announced in May to Parliament that the government had ordered investigations by the CAG and the state anti-corruption watchdog into fraud allegations.
Pinda said opposition MPs had accused senior officials of fraudulently authorizing payment of at least $122 million of public funds from an escrow account held jointly by state power firm TANESCO and independent power producer IPTL to IPTL's owner Pan Africa Power (PAP) in 2013. PAP said the transfer was legal.
At last a week ago, Tanzania, through the National Assembly knelt under the donor group, coming up with eight resolutions on the hot debate involving the withdrawal of ($122million) Sh320bn from Tegeta Escrow account that was being administered by the Bank of Tanzania.
Among the resolutions, the legislature agreed that key government officials who facilitated the withdrawal of the monies from the account be removed from their respective positions.
On November 26 this year, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended that Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and other top government officials take political responsibility and resign over the scandal involving funds that were fraudulently withdrawn from the Bank of Tanzania and shared out.
Tabling the eagerly-awaited report in Parliament PAC Chairman Zitto Kabwe and his deputy, Deo Filikunjombe, took time to present the shocking findings on how a businessman, in collaboration with high-ranking state officials, hatched a plot to grab the money from the Bank of Tanzania.
Other top government officials implicated in the saga are Attorney General Frederick Werema, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Eliakim Maswi, Energy and Minerals Minister Sospeter Muhongo and his deputy, Stephen Masele.
The resolutions to sack the ministers and other top government officials were reached last week at the climax of the debate on the PAC report in Parliament.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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