Doomsday looms for corrupt Tanzanian leaders

Several dishonest cooperative societies' leaders countrywide will face legal actions following Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) announcement to have rescued 8.8bn shillings, in four months period, which the individuals embezzled.

However, according to PCCB Acting Director General, Brig Gen John Mbungo revelation to the 'Daily News' in Dar es Salaam, a number of the leaders would be released upon completion of an investigation exercise with collected evidences, the task thewhich the Ministry of Agriculture entrusted to it in November last year.

"The number is very big because we are investigating all cooperative societies including those for savings and credits, where each society may have more than 10 leaders, so we will announce the total figure later," he said.

Elaborating, he added that the task to rescue the money was not easy, but wisdom guided them to first save it and thereafter take legal measures against the suspects.

"If we sent them straight to court, we could possibly not be able to save the money," said General Brig Gen Mbungo.

The rescued money was part of 124bn shillings which the Co-operative Audit and Supervision Corporation (COASCO) 2018/19 audit report on Cooperative Societies unearthed and recommended that investigations be conducted.

Agriculture Minister Japhet Hasunga submitted the report to the anti-graft body in November last year and asked it to probe the uncertainty surrounding the expenditure of the funds.

Since then, the PCCB embarked on the probe to establish truth on the indicators of the corruption, which according to General Brig Gen Mbungo was done in phases.

In the first phase they investigated a total of 51bn out of 72.2bn and rescued 4bn shillings that was also made public on January 22 this year.

"Some of the rescued funds have been returned back to the cooperative societies or deposited into special accounts after advice from District or Regional Registrars of the cooperative societies," he pointed out.

By yesterday, the PCCB announced to have completed the second phase of the probe, where it rescued 4.8bn out of 14.4bn that was in their focus.

Without going into details, he said that the investigations are also put in categories, where one has Njombe region leading with a total of 7.9bn followed by Kagera (7.5bn), Kinondoni (5.9bn), Temeke (5.7bn) and Mbeya (4.7bn), adding that in Njombe region, they only managed to rescue 3.8bn.

Meanwhile, the Acting Director, Brig Gen Mbungo has applauded the government for supporting them with funds to enable them conduct countrywide investigations especially in societies suspected to be embezzling members' finances.