THE government has ordered the weekly tabloid ‘Dira ya Mtanzania’ to immediately apologise and correct the false allegations published in its two previous editions implicating the Chief Secretary (CS), Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, of various scandals.
The Director of Tanzania Information
Services, Mr Assah Mwambene, said in Dar es Salaam that the tabloid had
maliciously implicated the CS of involvement in scandalous decisions,
adding that it should thus apologise to the government, himself and the
general public for the misleading articles.
He said that the tabloid’s 404 edition
published on Monday carried a seditious article titled ‘Uchafu wa Ombeni
Sefue Ikulu’ (Ombeni Sefue’s rot at State House), which was a
continuation of another feature article published in a previous edition.
The article had accused the chief
secretary of having influenced the appointment of the Medical Store
Department (MSD) Director General, awarding of a tender to China Railway
Jianchang Engineering Co. Ltd (CRJE) and another company dubbed UGG to
build the University of Dodoma, Kigamboni Bridge and Dar es
Salaam-Kigali railway line.
“Such information does not contain any
element of truth and owners of the tabloid themselves have confessed
that they do not have any evidence. It is very clear that the
information was not correct,” Mr Mwambene said.
He pointed out that the tabloid had no
right to publish such allegations, adding that it should have rather
informed relevant and legal agencies such as the Prevention and
Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).
On the appointment of MSD Director
General, Mr Mwambene pointed out that the chief secretary was not
involved in any way, adding that all legal procedures were followed to
appoint the eventual holder.
He noted that the claims published in
the article that MSD has never been under a CEO who is not a pharmacist
were also not true because since its formation in 1993, only one chief
executive was a pharmacist.
Mr Mwambene said that at the time when
CRJE was being awarded the tender, Ambassador Sefue had not yet been
appointed to his current position.
“Also procedures of acquiring a
constructor of Kigamboni Bridge started in March 2011, when Mr Sefue was
Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
Even when the contract was being signed
in January 2012, Ambassador Sefue had one week in office as chief
secretary,” he elaborated. He further noted that CRJE did not win the
tender, which was won by China Major Bridges Engineering Company (BCEC)
and China Railway Construction Engineering Group (CRCEG).
The chief government spokesperson also
pointed out that the tabloid in question accused the CS of lobbying for
the UGG to be awarded a construction tender, which is not true because
there is no such company in Tanzania.
He was saddened by the lack of
professionalism in the way the tabloid carried its articles, saying that
there were too many mistakes, including the wrong name of Ambassador
Sefue, which is addressed as “Sifuni”.
“I would like to advise owners of media,
publishers, editors and journalists to observe professionalism and
ensure that their works are well researched and true…,” he said
No comments:
Post a Comment