Embezzlers face music

DAR ES SALAAM: PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has ordered the arrest of four senior officials of the Kigamboni Municipal Council and other four employees from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) unit at the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments-PO-RALG) over allegations of embezzling 165.6m/-.

In line with this, the premier ordered the suspension of Ms Annie Nyabugumba Maugo from the TSA unit due to her involvement in the transaction of funds from PO-RALG to the Kigamboni Municipal Council.

He issued the directives yesterday while addressing employees of the Kigamboni Municipal Council in Dar es Salaam. The Prime Minister is on a two-day working tour of Dar es Salaam Region.

Prime Minister Majaliwa made this decision based on an investigation conducted by a team he had appointed to follow up on the embezzlement allegations, along with a special audit carried out by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) office to verify the authenticity of the claims.

He stated that the investigation team’s findings revealed that the officials had been using the TSA account to conceal the funds, contrary to the account’s intended purpose.

He noted that on September 5, 2022, three dishonest employees from PO-RALG collaborated with Kigamboni Municipal Council employees to deposit 165.6m/- into the TSA account, where the money remained for an entire year without the knowledge of the Director, the Council, or other department heads.

“These few individuals met in Dodoma during budget reviews for councils, where they conspired with PO-RALG finance officers, Mr Aidan Mponzi and Adora Mwombeki Mbalilaki, to transfer the funds. They agreed that the money would be returned after a while, but it wasn’t and they began using it.”

He explained that they started using the funds without informing the Council or including them in the Municipal Council’s budget so that other department heads would be aware of the funds.

ALSO READ: PM stress e-tax

He added that after this network was discovered, the investigation team visited the council and interviewed the Director of Kigamboni Municipal Council, Mr Erasto Kiwale, who admitted he was unaware of the funds.

“The director questioned the Head of Finance for the Council, Mr Geofrey Martin, who confirmed the existence of the funds. The director instructed him to return the funds as they lacked documentation, but Mr Martin failed to comply. When questioned by the investigation team on why he hadn’t returned the money, he claimed it was intended for Management and Development for Health (MDH), although the District Medical Officer was unaware of the funds.”

The Prime Minister further explained that Mr Geofrey admitted the funds were brought in by PO-RALG employees with the agreement that a portion would be returned to Mr Idan Zabron.

“Geofrey explained that the funds were not reported to the Council because they were transferred irregularly,” PM said.

He added that the embezzled funds began being used, with 105.6m/- paid for road improvements leading to the Lingate dumpsite.

“These payments were made in three instalments: 77.5m/- to a contractor named Konya Investment Company Ltd, 28.1m/- to another contractor named Mbogolo Investment Company and 2.4m/- for the supervisor’s allowance.”

The premier stated that the investigation team visited the project site and questioned the project manager, Mr Godwin Cheyo, who said that the road was built to a rough level, instead of gravel, and the total project cost did not exceed 30m/-.

Additionally, the contractors who implemented the project were unqualified and were used merely to facilitate the embezzlement of funds.

Furthermore, Mr Jonathan Manguli, the Kigamboni Municipal Council accountant, was a signatory for Mbogolo Investment Company and both companies shared the same address as Konya Investment Company Ltd, indicating a conflict of interest.

He praised the Kigamboni Municipal Council for suspending the implicated employees and dismissing others.