Probe privatisation, Zitto urges Magufuli

ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe

What you need to know:

Call comes after President John Magufuli orders probe into TTCL-Airtel shares saga

Dar es Salaam. The government has been advised to form a commission of inquiry into how various parastatals were privatised.

This comes as the Airtel saga keeps unfolding, exposing a lot of anomalies.

According to some politicians who spoke to The Citizen, there are other state companies whose privatisation procedures were flawed.

They also called for the government to take legal measures against the perpetrators.

For his part, ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe has advised President John Magufuli to form a commission of inquiry that would be tasked to look into how the privatisation process was conducted.

Mr Kabwe’s advice comes barely three days after the Head of State directed the minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango, to find out the details regarding the controversial transfer of Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) shares to Celtel Tanzania (now Airtel Tanzania).

“What I understand is that Airtel Tanzania is the property of TTCL but there were some dirty games going on to make sure that this ends,” said Dr Magufuli during an event in Dodoma to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the Headquarters of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Following the developments, Mr Zitto yesterday came up with advice that the Airtel matter should not be treated in isolation but rather should be put in the wider context of the challenges facing the privatisation policy of Tanzania. Commenting on the matter, Kawe Member of Parliament on Chadema ticket, Ms Halima Mdee, said it was high time for those who were involved in the illegal deals to be arrested and prosecuted.

She asked the government to release names of TTCL board member who approved the decision to transfer the shares in a move that facilitated the deal.

The fire brand MP also demanded that the contract between TTCL and Celtel should be made public so that all would be aware of what really took place.

The observation was seconded by former Kigoma South legislator David Kafulila, who has since defected to CCM, who said it would not be enough for Celtel (now Airtel) to be repossessed by TTCL.

“The public is eagerly waiting to hear who was who in the deal, and the issue should he handled in a very transparent way, to clear people’s doubt,” argued Mr Kafulila.

On Thursday, the chief executive officer of TTCL, Mr Waziri Kindamba, told a press conference in Dar es Salaam that it was high time Airtel Tanzania Limited surrendered the company to TTCL.

“That company (Airtel) was obtained illegally and in that case there is no way whatsoever that it can operate legally in the country,” said Mr Kindamba.

According to Mr Kabwe, the government should embark on streamlining th privatisation process instead of dealing with Airtel alone.

“This will help the government to deal with the matter with consistency,’’ he noted.

Previously, he recalled, “The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) ordered the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to carry out a post-privatisation audit on various institutions. We submitted the findings in Parliament. It won’t do us any good dealing with isolated cases of state institutions that were privatised controversially.”

“The privatisation of Tanzania Telecommunications Limited (TTCL) had been well explained in a report to Parliament and our last report was issued in January, 2015,’’ he said.

“In 2011, the then Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority(TRA), Mr Harry Kitilya, analysed and submitted before PAC a report showing that a loss of up to $312 million was incurred when Zain was sold to Airtel,’’ he said.