The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam stayed hearing of an abuse of office case involving former senior government officials after allowing ex-cabinet minister Basil Mramba to travel outside Tanzania for treatment.
Basil Mramba
Mramba was set to continue giving his defence testimony for being cross-examined by the prosecution. But Mr Sam Rumanyika, currently a judge of the High Court, who is hearing the matter alongside two others adjudicators, adjourned the hearing to September 16.
Such postponement was a result of the adjudicators granting the request by advocate Elisa Msuya, for Mramba, to allow him receive the treatment he needs. Mramba is charged along with Daniel Yona, who served as Energy and Minerals minister in the third phase government of President Benjamin Mkapa.
The other accused person is former Treasury permanent secretary, Gray Mgonja. They are charged with abuse of office and occasioning a 11.7 bn/- loss to the government through controversial hiring of an auditing firm, Alex Stewart Assayers.
Their case followed three years of investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the police into the suspicious hiring of Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation (ASA) to audit gold production in Tanzania.
The firm was in 2003 controversially awarded a contract which saw it receive a whopping 65bn/- (50m US dollars) in gold audit fees. It completed the assignment and left the country in August 2007. The firm was paid an average of 1.3bn/- (1m US dollars) every month from June 2003 to August 2007.
Source Tanzania Daily News
