Mkapa above the law?

-PCCB boss fails to make himself clear Says he’s ’not prepared to defy his boss’

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam.

THE government’s anti-corruption watchdog has said it cannot investigate any allegations of wrongdoing against former president Benjamin Mkapa because that would be going against public statements made by incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete.

According to Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) Director-General Edward Hosea, the president has already made a declaration on the matter and he (Hosea) is not prepared to defy his boss.

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE?
President Kikwete; PCCB´s Hosea; ex-president Mkapa
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’’The president (Kikwete) has authority over me. Therefore, whatever statements he makes constitute an order to me,’’ Hosea said on Thursday evening during a live talk show programme aired by the state-run television network TvT and radio stations, Radio Tanzania (RTD) and Sauti ya Zanzibar (Voice of Zanzibar).

The PCCB chief was responding to a question from a caller who asked him to explain if the bureau was contemplating any investigation into reports of alleged transgressions in the privatisation and takeover of the Kiwira Coal Mine in Mbeya Region, in which former president Mkapa and his energy and minerals minister Daniel Yona were both involved.

It has been established that by virtue of their positions in government at the time, Mr Mkapa and Yona jointly supervised the Kiwira ’fast-track’ privatisation process and oversaw the sale of majority shares in the mine to a recently-formed private company in which both of them had extensive, shareholding interests.

The company, Tanpower Resources Limited, was registered in December 2004 and by mid-2005 (hardly six months later) had already succeeded in acquiring 70 per cent shares in the Kiwira Coal Mine. This was later increased to 85 per cent shares, with the remaining, token 15 per cent retained by the government of the day.

In Thursday’s episode of the weekly Tuambie’ programme, aired live by all three state electronic media organs, Hosea endeavoured to explain how the new Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act of 2007 is supposed to give PCCB more powers to tackle grand corruption in the country.

He cited abuse of position by public leaders as one of the many offences being targeted under the new anti-graft legislation.

Section 33 of the legislation states that: ’’Any person who intentionally abuses his position in the performance or failure to perform an act, in violation of law in the discharge of his functions or use of position for the purpose of obtaining an undue advantage for himself or for another person or entity, commits an offence...’’

According to this law, convicted offenders shall be liable to ’’a fine of not less than 1m/- but not more than 2m/-, or to imprisonment for a term of not less than three years but not more than five years, or to both the fine and the jail sentence.’’

Questions from callers started flowing in after Hosea’s introductory remarks.

Apparently not satisfied with Hosea’s initial response to the Mkapa question, another caller asked the PCCB boss to be a little more specific and state clearly whether or not the anti-graft body would initiate formal investigations into the ex-president’s actions with regard to Kiwira.

Hosea reiterated that he simply could not ’’go against what I consider to be instructions from the president (Kikwete)’’, but at the same time used the occasion to ’advise’ anybody with evidence against the ex-president to present it to PCCB.

He was apparently referring to statements made by President Kikwete at a State House news conference in June this year, in which he said his government had no intention of investigating his predecessor because retired presidents deserved to be left in peace, but added that his government would not hesitate to investigate any ’’serious allegations of wrongdoing.’’

Asked by yet another caller why PCCB has so far failed to record any major achievements in the fight against grand corruption in the country, Hosea responded that previously the hands of the anti-graft watchdog were tied by legal loopholes.

But he added that the new anti-corruption legislation was designed to give PCCB more clout to go after the culprits of such grand corruption, which he compared to ’sharks’ as opposed to petty corruption offenders whom he described as mere ’sardines.’

’’Sardines are easy to catch because you can easily see them anywhere...it’s the sharks that are most difficult to catch,’’ Hosea said.

President Kikwete’s statement last June was in response to revelations that Mr Mkapa and former first lady Anna Mkapa had formed a private company in 1999 while still at State House, and conducted private business dealings from within the Ikulu walls until retirement in 2005.

Just a couple of months after Mr Mkapa’s remarks, new evidence has surfaced suggesting that Mr Mkapa and ex-minister Yona may have broken several laws, including the Public Leadership Code of Ethics Act of 1995, in their conduct over the Kiwira Coal Mine privatisation saga.

According to the ethics legislation, a public leader shall be considered to have breached the Act if he or she acquires any significant financial advantage, or assists another person to acquire such gain, by ’’improperly using or benefiting from information which is obtained in the course of his/her official duties and which is not generally available to the public.’’