By SUKHDEV CHHATBAR Associated Press Writer DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) -- Tanzania's prime minister and two Cabinet ministers have resigned over a corruption scandal involving a contract with a nonexistent firm supposedly based in the United States, and the president dissolved the entire Cabinet as a result. The decision, announced late Thursday, comes a week before a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, which has been considered a sign of approval for the government. More than half of Tanzania's budget comes from foreign aid. "I have written to the president to relieve me of my duties after serving the government for two years," Prime Minister Edward Lowassa told parliament Thursday in Dodoma, 250 miles north of Dar es Salaam. Energy Minister Nazir Karamagi and East African Cooperation Minister Idrissa Msabaha, also resigned. Msabaha was energy minister at the time the government was negotiating a contract with Texas-based Richmond Development Corp. LLC. President Jakaya Kikwete dissolved his entire Cabinet, the government announced in a statement. Lowassa's letter said that he was wrongly implicated and never was given a chance to explain. The resignations followed Wednesday's highly critical report by a parliamentary committee on a contract awarded to Richmond Development to supply emergency power about two years ago. A contract of $172.5 million was signed to supply the government with 100 megawatts of emergency power when drought hit Tanzania's hydroelectric dams. But generators arrived faulty and late, or not at all. The report said the company did not exist in the United States. It said the government was paying the company $140,000 a day, and asked who was collecting that money. The committee's chairman, Harrison Mwakyembe, presented written evidence he said linked the three men to the contract. Kikwete took office in 2006, promising to fight graft in Tanzania, one of southern Africa's poorest countries. Last month, he fired the head of the central bank after international auditors discovered more than $120 million was missing. Bush praised Kikwete's "leadership and vision" in a statement announcing his trip to Africa, including three days in Tanzania. ---
Siasa ni mchezo chafu!
ReplyDeletePolitics is a dirty game!
By SUKHDEV CHHATBAR
ReplyDeleteAssociated Press Writer
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) -- Tanzania's prime minister and two Cabinet ministers have resigned over a corruption scandal involving a contract with a nonexistent firm supposedly based in the United States, and the president dissolved the entire Cabinet as a result.
The decision, announced late Thursday, comes a week before a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, which has been considered a sign of approval for the government. More than half of Tanzania's budget comes from foreign aid.
"I have written to the president to relieve me of my duties after serving the government for two years," Prime Minister Edward Lowassa told parliament Thursday in Dodoma, 250 miles north of Dar es Salaam.
Energy Minister Nazir Karamagi and East African Cooperation Minister Idrissa Msabaha, also resigned. Msabaha was energy minister at the time the government was negotiating a contract with Texas-based Richmond Development Corp. LLC.
President Jakaya Kikwete dissolved his entire Cabinet, the government announced in a statement.
Lowassa's letter said that he was wrongly implicated and never was given a chance to explain.
The resignations followed Wednesday's highly critical report by a parliamentary committee on a contract awarded to Richmond Development to supply emergency power about two years ago.
A contract of $172.5 million was signed to supply the government with 100 megawatts of emergency power when drought hit Tanzania's hydroelectric dams. But generators arrived faulty and late, or not at all.
The report said the company did not exist in the United States. It said the government was paying the company $140,000 a day, and asked who was collecting that money.
The committee's chairman, Harrison Mwakyembe, presented written evidence he said linked the three men to the contract.
Kikwete took office in 2006, promising to fight graft in Tanzania, one of southern Africa's poorest countries. Last month, he fired the head of the central bank after international auditors discovered more than $120 million was missing.
Bush praised Kikwete's "leadership and vision" in a statement announcing his trip to Africa, including three days in Tanzania.
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