Graft in gas pipeline revealed

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Zitto Kabwe waves to the crowd while holding hands with Civic United Front (CUF) chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, before speaking at Mashujaa Ground in Mtwara yesterday. PHOTO| IBRAHIM YAMOLA  

By  Athuman Mtulya,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• Zitto made revelation in Mtwara when invited by Prof Lipumba to give remarks as CUF celebrated landslide victory in local polls

Mtwara. As the country still struggles with the ghost of corruption associated with the Tegeta escrow account, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair, Mr Zitto Kabwe, said the construction of
Mtwara-Dar es Salaam gas pipeline was also marred with corruption in which more than one trillion shillings was lost.

Mr Zitto dropped the bombshell yesterday at the Mashujaa grounds in Mtwara when he was invited by the Civic United Front’s (CUF) chairperson, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, to give remarks during celebrations of CUF’s landslide victory in local government elections in the region.

He revealed that the leader of the official opposition in Parliament, Mr Freeman Mbowe, was set to table a motion in the august House to shed more light on the new gas pipeline scandal.

“The rest of us will be there to provide him with all necessary support that he may need…I strongly believe the cost of the construction was more than doubled and over $600 million was given out both in China and Tanzania,” he said.

Mr Kabwe told Mtwara residents who flocked the grounds in their thousands that he was with them in their struggle to ensure that the newly discovered riches in gas would benefit the ordinary people in their lives, education and ultimately end abject poverty.

On the Tegeta escrow account scandal where Sh 306 billion was siphoned out of the Bank of Tanzania, Mr Kabwe said Pan African Power Solutions Limited (PAP) owner, Kenyan tycoon Harbinder Singh Sethi, collided with two other foreigners from Oman and Malaysia to dubiously take over Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) and shared the escrow money sent to StanBic Bank.

He mentioned the duo as one Baharuddin from Malaysia who sold Mechmar shares to PiperLink through Mr Issa Ruwaih of Oman who sold the shares to Mr Sethi.

Mr Kabwe urged President Jakaya Kiwete not to shy away from acting on the remaining public servants who have been implicated in the scandal, because doing so would boost the culture of accountability in the country.

“In the election year 1990, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi addressed the nation and said eight ministries are very corrupt…the then premier Judge Joseph Warioba thought it was prudent for him to show the way and resigned. President Mwinyi chose Warioba again as Premier in his new cabinet…coincidentally it was from this reshuffle that Mr Kikwete became a minister,” he said.

Mr Kabwe argued that Mr Kikwete will not be the first one to make a tough decision in an election year, as public offices are not royal posts.