ACT �Wazalendo party leader and Kigoma Urban lawmaker, Zitto Kabwe
The Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) fined the LSE listed South
African Bank US 13 million for the offence but the Bank of Tanzania
Governor, Professor Benno Ndulu said the money belonged to a private
bank. The Central Bank chief however did not give details.
“This was not a Treasury bond or government security bonds, it was
a private placement by a bank,” Prof Ndulu said while advising The
Guardian to carefully follow the matter since its inception. Treasury
wanted the money to finance infrastructure after failing to place a
Eurobond due to the absence of international credit rating.
ACT –Wazalendo party leader and Kigoma Urban lawmaker, Zitto Kabwe
urged President John Pombe Magufuli to urgently address the high level
graft issue, saying such deal was behind the country’s economic malaise.
“The bond was bought by a foreign bank, Standard Bank Group of
South Africa but not all the money was paid to the Treasury,” Kabwe said
warning that it’s a repeat of the controversial radar deal of over two
decades ago.
He said following the SFO’s investigations, grand corruption was
clearly detected which forced Stanbic Bank to allow their senior
management officials to fly to London for interrogation.
“ACT- Wazalendo demands that state organs should play their role
and act and take all culprits before courts of law,” Kabwe noted calling
on Treasury’s Financial Intelligence Unit and Prevention and Combating
of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to take action soonest.
The ACT Wazalendo leader pledged to support President Magufuli’s
anti graft drive and urged him to take the matter seriously because
state organs are taking a back seat.
“President Magufuli should take action against this embezzlement of
public funds for the good of our country,” the Kigoma Urban lawmaker
argued.
The Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary, Dr Servacius Likwelile did not received calls nor did he respond to text messages.
The private placement bond which was described by analysts as
cheap when it was introduced at LSE in March 2012, drew a lot of
criticism.
“The cheaply priced US$600m seven-year private placement was
described as a "disaster" by one banker,” Reuters said in a story
published a few hours after the bond was floated.
The bonds jumped 2.75 points on their first day of trading which
worked out at a cost to the government of US$4m a year in coupon
payments, assuming that the bonds could have priced at the tighter
level.
For one of the poorest countries in the world, with GDP-per-capita
of US$532 as of 2011, according to the World Bank, that's a considerable
amount of money to be given to investors. And the pain could get even
worse, the Reuters story said.
The deal, which was led by Standard Bank, perplexed the financial
community from the moment news emerged about it nearly two weeks ago,
especially as Tanzania had an unofficial mandate with Citigroup for a
public Eurobond.
Although the deal remains a long way off as Tanzania does not have a
credit rating, market participants were surprised the country was going
ahead with a private placement as its debut international bond.
"To consider a private placement when they were talking about a
Eurobond is not great investor relations," said an analyst who covers
the region.
A syndicate official at Standard said, however, that the private
placement was a sensible alternative to a fully fledged Eurobond - given
the absence of a rating.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
No comments :
Post a Comment