THE setting-up of Club Bilicanas without the approval of the landlord as well as inflating costs for renovation and rehabilitation for the building to the tune of 1.3bn/- are among factors that worsened relations between the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and Mbowe Hotels Limited (MHL).
Documentary evidence obtained by ‘Daily
News’ have revealed that the company had in 1996 claimed to have spent
1.3bn/- on renovations of the building and yet the value of the land and
property at that time was just 450m/-.
At this time in question, the NHC had
proposed a joint venture agreement to re-develop the building in which
each party would have 50 per cent stake but MHL rejected the offer
pushing to be awarded 75 per cent shares.
It has as well come to light that MHL
had put up the famous entertainment hotspot Club Bilicanas and Casino in
1989 without the approval of the then Registrar of Buildings (RoB), the
precursor of NHC.
“The tenant (MHL) has refused to pay
rents for many years claiming that he had spent a lot of money in
construction of the club and yet he did not have the permit for the
extension.
“This was unacceptable and the board of
directors directed that he should continue paying rent,” the then
Director General of NHC, Mr Haruna Masebu, wrote in a letter to the
Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development at that time, Mr
Edward Lowassa, in a letter dated September 5, 1994.
As if that was not enough, MHL had way
back in 2007 made major facelift on the club which it later apologized
for through a letter on July 28, 2009 written by the company’s Managing
Director, Dr Lilian Mbowe, to the DG of NHC.
“We wish to bring to your attention that
the property has just undergone massive renovations and refurbishments.
However, allow us to regret and apologize for embarking in the project
without seeking your full and specific consent.
“Besides the fact that no explanation
will justify this oversight sufficiently, it was erroneously assumed by
our project manager that regular renovations and maintenances require
specific consent,” Dr Mbowe wrote.
She admitted that the project was not a
regular renovation but a ‘massive and expansive investment’ that would
have require permission of the landlord before it commenced.
Mr Lowassa has been implicated for
pushing the then management of NHC to enter into the shoddy agreement in
1997 in which MHL pledged to re-develop and expanding the building to
put a three-star hotel, conference and cinema facilities, among others.
However, years passed afterwards and MHL
did not honour its pledges and this prompted the housing corporation to
terminate the agreement in February, last year.
At that time MHL faced rents arrears
amounting to millions of shilling and after repeated reminders it failed
to settle the debt after which NHC issued it with a notice to terminate
the lease agreement which comes to effect this week towards eviction
from the building.
MHL is among seven tenants residing in
the building, located along Mkwepu and Indira Gandhi (Makunganya) in Dar
es Salaam’s central business district. Investigations by this paper
have revealed that the company occupies 1,390.75 square metres,
translating to 71.2 per cent of the building.
The company, owned by National Chairman
of Chadema, Mr Freeman Mbowe, started occupying the building in 1973
after it was relocated from the then Splendid Hotel at the site of the
Ex-telecoms building along Samora Avenue.
Efforts to get comments from Mr Mbowe
were not successful yesterday. He was however quoted by the media last
week claiming that the debt was “politically motivated to silence him.”
The Director General of NHC, Mr Nehemiah
Mchechu, has however, denied such claims, stressing that the
corporation has been evicting all defaulters including government
institutions.
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