PCCB to probe misuse of airport compensation funds

Faustine Kapama & Abdallah Msuya

THE saga relating to compensation of residents in Dar es Salaam who were affected following the expansion of the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) has landed in the hands of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).

This was said by the Deputy Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Engineer Edwin Ngonyani, when responding to a supplementary question by Mwita Waitara (Ukonga-Chadema), who wanted to know when compensation would be effected as the matter has been pending a long time.

The deputy minister said that they were dealing with problems involving the matter, as there were few unscrupulous people who had used the opportunity and misused the allocated funds.

“We have taken the matter to PCCB who are working on it. Once we get a report from them we will continue with the exercise for those who have not been paid,” he said.

He assured the MPs that the matter would be settled within five years, since in some of the areas the compensation exercise has been made. In the basic question, Musa Sima (Singida Urban-CCM), asked the government when the airport set at Manga village in Singida Region under the World Bank funding would be constructed.

The deputy minister said that indeed the government obtained a loan from the World Bank, of which part of the loan has been spent for conducting feasibility study and detailed design for 11 airports in Iringa, Njombe, Songea, Lindi, Kilwa Masoko, Tanga, Singida, Moshi, Musoma and Lake Manyara, among other regions.

He informed the MP, however, that the feasibility study and detailed design for construction of the airport in Singida were being done at a different area and not at Manga village and efforts were in final stages to look for funds from other sources for rehabilitation, expansion or construction works.

While conducting the feasibility study and detailed design, he said, his ministry received some requests from Singida Region for experts to go to conduct preliminary analysis on the new proposed area at Uhamaka near Manga village for construction of the airport.

The deputy minister pointed out that the new area was proposed in the special programme of development of Singida Municipal for 2015-2035. He said that the preliminary study conducted by the Airports Authority shows that such area covering 2,400 hectares was proper for construction of an airport.

Following such report, according to him, the next stage would be acquisition of the area in question, which will involve payments of compensation of citizens’ properties available, surveying the area for the purpose of getting a title, sourcing of funds and later the construction works would follow.