DAR ES SALAAM’s Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday heard how former Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) Managing Director David Mattaka subjected the company to over 86bn/- pecuniary loss.
The prosecution, led by Principal State
Attorney Timony Vitalis, told Principal Resident Magistrate Respicious
Mwijage that Mataka, who is charged alongside two others, caused the
loss through signing of the Aircraft Lease Agreement in respect of
Airbus A320-214 between ATCL and Wallis Trading Inc.
The other accused in the matter are
Ramadhan Seif Mlinga and Bertha Humphrey Soka, former senior officials
with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), who face one
count of minute forgery.
Reading the memorandum of the case
facts, the prosecution alleged that Mattaka had ignored the advice of
his experts who did advised him not to sign the acceptance certificate
for the airplane, which was still under maintenance and would have taken
over two months to complete.
It is stated that the plane was released
to ATCL after the government guarantee, which was approved by the
Ministry of Finance retrospectively. The plane, the prosecution said,
operated within the country for six months, starting May 30 through
December 10, 2008, generating an income of 17,813,265,109/-.
The prosecution told the court further
that during the period of operating the airbus, ATCL signed a
maintenance agreement with Air Mauritius for the aircraft repair at
130,885.17 Euros, which was duly paid. On March 5, 2009, the aircraft
was flown to Mauritius for maintenance and was withheld there for months
because ATCL could not foot the bill.
The prosecution alleged that on July 5,
2009, the plane was flown from Mauritius to France where the total
maintenance cost was 1,244,443.94 Euros. “ATCL was able to pay 1,986.38
Euros only.
At the same time ATCL had to engage and
pay SGI Technical Services company a sum of 14,000 Euros for supervising
12 years C Check. The aircraft was withheld in France for months
because ATCL was unable to pay its outstanding maintenance bill,” the
prosecution charged.
The court was told further that on
October 27, 2011, Wallis Trading Inc (the Lessor) terminated its lease
contract with ATCL and paid all the French maintenance costs and
repossessed the plane. It is alleged that the Lessor presented to the
ATCL a bill of 45,103,838.80 US dollars.
“The government team negotiated the bill
and reduced it to 42,459,316.12 US dollars. Out of that outstanding
bill, the Lessor has been paid by the Ministry of Finance (Guarantor) a
sum of 26,128,438.82 US dollars.
The balance is still outstanding,” the
prosecution further alleged. After presenting the facts, Mattaka denied
them all, but his co-accused (Mlinga) admitted that on February 27,
2008, the Paymaster General at the time, Mr Gray Mgonja, wrote a letter
to him as PPRA Chief Executive Officer, seeking his opinion if ATCL
followed the procurement rules.
The former PPRA boss told the court that
he replied that ATCL did not follow the rules in securing the aircraft
lease agreement. He further admitted that on March 12, 2008, he had
written a letter to Mattaka advising him to make an application to Mr
Mgonja.
Such letter, he stated, was for
retrospective approval of the ATCL irregular lease of the airplane for
the company to get government guarantee. On March 19, 2008, Mlinga
advised Mr Mgonja to approve retrospectively the ATCL irregular lease
agreement. He admitted to have given the advice because further delay
for the government to issue a guarantee would have subjected ATCL to a
contractual penalties and business loss.
Finally, Mr Mgonja approved the lease
agreement retrospectively, basing on the advice from Mlinga. After the
approval, on March 27, 2008, Mr Mgonja wrote a loose minute to the
Minister of Finance, advising him to grant the government guarantee to
ATCL.
On March 28, 2008, the minister approved
the guarantee, which facilitated the aircraft released to ATCL. Facts
by the prosecution show that the aircraft left San Salvador for Tanzania
on April 28, 2008 and landed in the country on May 1, 2008, but
operated for only six months before undergoing further maintenance.
Full hearing of the matter takes off on November 23
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