By Deodatus Mfugale

Two former Tanzanian government ministers on Monday appeared in court in Dar es Salaam charged with 13 counts of abuse of office and illegally exempting tax to private companies, thereby occasioning loss to the government amounting to 11 billion Tanzanian Shillings (equivalent to about USD 11 million).
The two prominent former cabinet ministers, Daniel Yona and Basil Mramba had served under Presidents Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete respectively. Mramba had also served under President Mkapa in the third phase government as Finance Minister while Yona had served as Minister for Energy and Minerals. Mramba was reappointed by President Kikwete to serve as Minister for Infrastructure Development but was dropped early this year during a cabinet reshuffle. He has a long service history in the government where he has held various ministerial posts. At one time he also served as regional commissioner for Mbeya region in the Southern Highlands area before being recalled to the cabinet. Until the reshuffle that saw him dropped from the cabinet, he was one of the most senior ministers in the country. He is the MP for Rombo constituency in Kilimanjaro region.
On the other hand Yona has had a shorter stint in the government, serving as minister for 10 years during which he was also a Member of Parliament.
According to the prosecution, between August 2002 and June 2004 the two ministers jointly misused their authority by procuring M/s Alex Stewart (Assayers) UK and its subsidiary company M/s Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation to sign and execute a gold production assaying agreement in the country contrary to regulations.
The prosecution further alleged that on May 28, 2005 the defendants also abused their authority by leaving the subsidiary company to sign an addendum extending gold production assaying for two years and went ahead to formalize the extension before a government negotiating team had convened to deliberate on the matter.

Mramba is further accused of acting contrary to the advice of the Tanzania Revenue Authority by granting tax exemption to the subsidiary company. He also granted the company the whole of income tax payable on goods and services supplied to the company, going against recommendations made by TRA.
The prosecution further charged that between 2003 and 2007 he willfully failed to take reasonable care in discharging his duties and signed three government notices which in effect exempted the company from paying income tax thus making the government suffer a loss of 11, 725,350,148/-.
Both the accused denied the charges and they were granted bail but failed to meet the conditions. They were thus remanded in custody until December 2, 2008 when the case will come up for another mention.
The arrest of the former ministers comes in the wake of public discontent on the way the government is dealing with the problem of corruption in the country. Until Monday’s episode, many people were of the opinion that the government was only dealing with people who were engaged in petty corruption leaving those involved in grand corruption untouched. The arrest of the former ministers and their subsequent prosecution would restore people's trust in the government.
ENDS.