TPDC top brass risk jail over oil deals

National Assembly’s Clerk, Dr Thomas Kashililah. PHOTO|FILE 

By The Citizen Reporters

In Summary

• Information made available to this paper shows that the Parliament has ordered TPDC top management to submit all 26 contracts it signed with foreign investors to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by Monday (today) or risk going to jail.

Dar es Salaam. Senior officials at the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) risk being jailed if they fail to submit 26 production sharing agreements (PSA) contracts, the state-owned entity, signed with multinational and local investors, it has been revealed.

Information made available to this paper shows that the Parliament has ordered TPDC top management to submit all 26 contracts it signed with foreign investors to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by Monday (today) or risk going to jail.

Under the Parliamentary Immunities Powers and Privileges Act, CAP 296 R.E 2002, any person who fails or declines to submit documents requested by the PAC, among other possible penalties, risks going to prison.

The House team’s warning comes a few days after TPDC, the state-owned entity tasked with managing the lucrative natural gas and oil sector, failed to submit the contract agreements to the PAC.

According to reliable parliamentary sources backed with documented evidence seen by The Citizen, the TPDC officials have been given until 10am today (Monday) to submit the much-sought contracts in the natural gas and oil sector, before the PAC.

The Citizen has reliably established that the National Assembly’s Clerk, Dr Thomas Kashililah, on October 30 this year, wrote a letter to the TPDC ordering the relevant officials to submit documents bearing the 26 contracts on production sharing agreements (PSA) by November 3, 2014.

Dr Kashililah, according to our impeccable sources, also ordered the TPDC management to submit an audited report for the financial year that ended on June 30, 2013.

“I am referring to your letter dated October 28 this year, requesting more time to sort the PSA’s and other documents which you were ordered by the committee, thus the committee gave you up to Monday November 3 this year,” reads part of the letter with Reference Number Cab.135/39/01/53, seen by The Citizen.

In a dramatic turn of events, last week, the PAC asked the TPDC to submit all the PSA contracts, but the state corporation declined, saying that first of all, it needed a nod from investors, before it could avail the contracts to the Parliamentary watchdog.

 While TPDC has been insisting that there is a clause on the contracts it signed with investors that grants confidentiality, at the other hand lawmakers and activists have been pushing for disclosure.

When it comes to accessing  contracts signed between the government and investors in the extractive industry, it has always been a daunting task, because the State has been insisting on secrecy, while legislators and activists gun for transparency in the multibillion dollar sector.

From mining to natural gas contracts, the battle to make various contracts accessible to legislators has always been a tough one—sometimes triggering a heated debate in Parliament. But, two months ago, StaOil, a Norwegian-based company, which has signed lucrative contracts with TPDC, claimed that it is the government, which was not willing to disclose the contents of the contracts.