TCRA board of directors dissolved, DG suspended

DAILY NEWS Reporter

PRESIDENT John Magufuli has dissolved the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) board and suspended its Director General, Dr Ally Yahya Simba, for failing to implement the Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring System (TTMS) convention.

The failure was subsequently denying the government about 400bn/- per year. The decision came after a meeting involving the president, leaders and experts from the Ministry of Works, Communications and Transport, Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).

On March 22, 2013, TCRA signed an agreement with the Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) Company on the placement, operation and transfer of mobile phone revenue where the company had to implement five components.

But until 2016, the company has not started to implement the component of regulation of local calls revenue. Dr Magufuli has also instructed the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Professor Makame Mbarawa, to appoint an Acting Director General of the authority immediately.

Moreover, he urged Prof Mbarawa, Permanent Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the ministry to take action immediately for local calls revenue collection system to commence operation immediately. “Make sure that you take action immediately.

I want us to properly collect revenue. I will not hesitate to take appropriate action against anyone who will hinder the process,” stressed the president.

The Controller and Auditor General (CAG) annual report released on Monday revealed that there was no feasibility study carried out, no business case developed and no proper assessment of risks of TTMS at TCRA.

It also revealed that there was lack of proper communication among the project’s key stakeholders, which resulted into non-inclusion in the Bills of Quantities (BoQ) of the TTMS contract for some key modules responsible for revenue assurance for Airtime Revenue Monitoring System (ARMS).

The TTMS has the capacity to have ‘add ons’ to the current capabilities.

These include Quality of Service (QoS) measurements, establishing telecommunication traffic volume both local and international, determining revenue or carrier access Billing information and Mobile money monitoring and hosting of the Central Equipment Identification Register (CEIR)