Since the last issue of TA a number of new cases of possible corruption have been reported in the media:
National Insurance Corporation (NIC)
According to Rai Mwema some 25 staff members of the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) wrote a 77-page letter to Prime Minister Pinda on 30 March requesting him to cleanse their firm of massive corruption. They said the management was colluding with lawyers to forge documents and pocketing millions. Rai reported that sources were saying that the PM had received the letter and it was being dealt with.
Ghost workers
Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management), Ms Hawa Ghasia, has told parliament that the government lost over TShs 3 billion during the 2006/07 fiscal year after paying ‘salaries’ to 1,500 ‘ghost workers.’ She said the loss was revealed in an audit in 2007. The ghost workers were in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (1,413), Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (36), Ilala Municipal Council (40) and Kinondoni Municipal Council (12) – Nipashe.
Procurement
The 2007 annual report of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) claims that the government is losing TShs 700 billion every year through corruption in its procurement sector.
Rufiji Basin Development Authority
The East African has reported that a $1 billion dollar private-public partnership deal involving Canadian and South African companies with the state-owned Rufiji River Basin Development Authority was to be investigated by the Office of the President to determine whether the parties followed public procurement rules when signing the contract. The project is for a major 900- megawatt hydro-electric scheme at Stieglers Gorge, 200 kilometres south-west Dar es Salaam, which elicited much excitement many years ago when it was first surveyed by a Norwegian company. It did not take off then because there was limited regional demand for electricity at the time.
Education grants
The educational NGO HakiElimu has reported that over 40 percent of the $10 and $20 grants given to primary and secondary school for each pupil in the country in 2004 may have disappeared. It was not clear however if it had been embezzled – Nipashe.