Attorney General Werema resigns

By The guardian reporter

Attorney General Judge, Frederick Werema.

Attorney General Judge Frederick Werema has resigned, the State House said in a press statement yesterday evening.

It said he tendered his resignation yesterday, and President Jakaya Kikwete had accepted it.

In the resignation letter, Werema said he was quitting because his advice on the Tegeta Escrow account scandal “was not understood and had in turn polluted the country’s socio-economic and political atmosphere”.

The statement quoted President Kikwete as having thanked Werema for “the diligence and trustworthiness he demonstrated during his time in service”.
The development comes as the country awaits President Kikwete’s promise to act on the National Assembly’s resolutions on the scandal that saw a staggering 320bn/, part of it in public funds, controversially withdrawn from the escrfow account.

The recommendations called for befitting action against all those implicated in the rot and those who paid under dubious circumstances.

The Controller and Auditor General’s Office as well as the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau conducted intensive investigations into the scandal.

On the strength of the two public agencies’ findings and recommendations by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, the National Assembly resolved that appropriate disciplinary and other measures be taken against Attorney General Judge Frederick Werema, Energy and Minerals minister Prof Sospeter Muhongo, Energy and Minerals ministry Permanent Secretary Eliakim Maswi and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) board of directors.

Also singled out for action was Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development minister Prof Anna Tibaijuka, who has admitted having received 1.6bn/- from one of the parties to IPTL.

The House was near unanimous that the transactions that led the AG and the ministry into sanctioning the controversial acquisition of shares in Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) and the widely contested withdrawal from the Bank of Tanzania’s Tegeta escrow account of over 300bn/- smacked of corruption, money laundering and blatant abuse of power.

In the wake of the scandal, at least a dozen international donors have withheld budget support for Tanzania until findings of the investigation into charges of corruption in the energy sector are released and the government has taken appropriate action on the matter.

The US government has also put on hold the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact with Dar es Salaam pending the government’s response on the Tegeta escrow scandal.

The Tegeta escrow account scandal is an over 300bn/- corruption scandal transferred from the Bank of Tanzania and distributed illegally among government officials and other individuals.

In the saga, two lawmakers put pressure on the government over the payment from the Escrow Account held by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to a private company known as Pan African Power.

David Kafulila (Kigoma South, NCCR-Mageuzi) and Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma North, Chadema) insisted that thorough investigations should be conducted to ascertain how the money was withdrawn from the account which was opened following a misunderstanding between the state power utility (Tanesco) and Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL).

The two MPs made the remarks a day after the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Eliachim Maswi, claimed that the documents the used to push for their demands are fake.

However, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda directed the anti corruption watchdog PCCB and the Controller and Auditor General to investigate the matter.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN