WORKS, Transport and Communications Minister, Professor Makame Mbarawa, yesterday launched the new Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Board of Directors, directing it to tackle issues of online publication of seditious materials, mobile phone fraud and control of service quality by mobile phone service providers.
Prof Mbarawa decried the poor quality of
services rendered, currently, directing the new Board Chairman, Dr
Jones Kilimbe, to work with TCRA management to take to task the telecom
companies delivering shoddy services.
The minister said customer complaints
were rife on service interruptions, with the quality of services by the
mobile service firms across the board dwindling amid stiff competition
and frustrated customers who hardly complete or receive calls
uninterrupted.
“It is useless to have a mobile phone
that keeps on dropping calls while you are paying money for the
services,” fumed the minister, expressing dismay over mobile phone
scammers who con people millions of shillings through phones and
directing the board to end the crimes.
There have been widespread cases of
conmen recently persuading people to send them money, impersonating as
their relatives, close friends or officemates.
The recent case was when senior
officials from Prof Mbarawa’s ministry were conned through their mobile
phones by people who requested that they be sent money to cater for
burial arrangements following the fictitious death of one of the
relatives of the minister.
Prof Mbarawa said the conmen had already
been arrested and appropriate legal actions taken against them. “You
can imagine if these people managed to steal from seven senior managers
from my ministry, what about a normal person,’’ wondered the minister,
charging that the Cyber Crime Act, 2016 should be properly implemented
to deal with the fraudsters.
Professor Mbarawa tasked the board to
supervise the management and staff to ensure all seditious publications
that have been circulating online are stopped and institute legal
actions against the culprits.
The Board Chairman promised to work on
the minister’s directives, saying the Tuesday’s convened board meeting
agreed on the observance of efficiency, excellence and positive results.
“We have also tasked the management to give us correct information to
act effectively and speedily,’’ he said.
President John Magufuli appointed Dr
Kilimbe to the TCRA helm on November 17 to replace Professor Haji
Semboja whose appointment was revoked.
In October, Dr Magufuli appointed
Engineer James Kilaba the new TCRA Director General to replace Dr Ally
Yahaya Simba, whose appointment also Dr Magufuli revoked following a
damning report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) over a
400bn/- yearly loss.
The CAG detailed the loss in the audit
report tabled in Parliament in April. At the centre of controversy was a
42bn/- contract between TCRA and Switzerland based Societe Generale de
Surveillance (SGS). The contract to undertake the Telecommunication
Traffic Monitoring System (TTMS) was signed in 2013
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