Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe. PHOTO | FILE
Dar es Salaam. The saga surrounding Jatu Plc could take a new twist after the government directed the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to investigate the firm.
The graft-bustling body will investigate circumstances that saw the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE)-listed firm garnering about Sh7.467 billion of agriculture investments for the year 2020 /21 season.
Read: Jatu Plc to return to DSE trading
Read: JATU to sale 15 million shares at DSE
This came up at the weekend during a meeting held in Dodoma which comprised representatives of ‘the farmers,’ PCCB officials and technocrats from the Ministry of Agriculture.
With Jatu management not showing up at the meeting, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe said that the matter was over and above his docket’s jurisdictions.
“The firm, which is listed, claims to be involved in agriculture, industries, and markets; the management collected about Sh7 billion of which Sh4.066 billion was collected from the country’s diaspora. The promise was that the money would be invested in agriculture and its value chain but they never delivered,” said Mr Bashe.
Mr Bashe said at least 1000 potential farmers filed their complaints to the ministry, requesting the government’s interventions in order to rescue their funds that were injected in investments that could no longer show hope of returns.
“Honestly, I have no problem with raising capital through stock exchange as that is normal but the thing that made the ministry to form a technical team to investigate this matter is that when the firm asked for money which it said it would invest in agriculture on their [investors’] behalf, it assured them that there was no need to worry about the market as Jatu would buy for its industries,” he explained.
Moreover, according to the ministry’s findings, there was nothing of such, “for instance,” said Mr Bashe: “Jatu had promised to undertake agriculture investments in Morogoro, Njombe and Rukwa, but when my team visited, they found nothing.”
“When we had our first meeting, Jatu had said they had harvested and stored the said yields but after our initial investigation, we found nothing. In fact, we went further to check with their own annual financial report which indicated that they had only Sh362 million derived from agricultural activities,” he added.
According to Mr Bashe, when Jatu management was asked on ways in which farmers would be paid, they responded that they had no money and that it was impossible for the farmers to recover their investment in such a state.
Mr Bashe mentioned that although he had invited Jatu’s management to his meeting, they declined, adding: “They proposed another date in September, which for me is just a waste of time.”
Therefore, Mr Bashe asked PCCB to collaborate with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) which operates under the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the Police Force and other security organs to further scrutinise the matter.
Reached for comment, the PCCB director general, Mr Salum Hamdun said: “I am out of the office and I haven’t received any official order. In fact, I have just heard the way you heard it.”
Effort to reach the Jatu Board Chairman, Mr Zaipuna Yonah and the acting Chief Executive Office Mr Mohamed Simbano, proved futile as the phone calls went unanswered.
This paper, visited Jatu’s office located in the PSSSF building but couldn’t be allowed to access the said offices as the security said the office was closed and that no one was allowed in the premises.
For his part, Mr Charles Shirima, Public Relations Manager for the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA), said that he was not in a position to comment as the matter is under investigation.
“I am in no position to comment, since the minister has already handled it to institutions that are responsible with investigations, then I can’t relate things from my perspective and what is on ground or being said.
Although Jatu was registered as a public limited company late October 2016, the DSE declined to respond saying the bourse was not related to any grievances related to Jatu.
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