Government seeks answers in locomotives saga

Dar es Salaam. The government has ordered the Tanzania Railway Limited and the Ports Authority to prepare a report to explain the circumstances that led to the abandoning of eleven locomotives at the Dar es Salaam port.

The deputy minister of Works, Transport and Communications, Edwin Ngonyani issued the order yesterday, a day after President John Magufuli had hinted on “dirty games” in the procurement process of the locomotives that arrived at the port a week ago.

Launching the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DSMGP) on Sunday, President Magufuli blamed TPA for poor coordination that led to clearing of consignment of locomotives at the port despite lack of appropriate documents. President Magufuli, then, ordered the ministry of Works, Transport and Communications to take action.

Yesterday, Mr Ngonyani told The Citizen in Dodoma that the ministry was not in a position to clarify on the saga because it had been unaware of the presence of the abandoned locomotives at the Dar es Salaam Port, but that they were seeking clarifications in order to implement the President’s directives.

“The President has ordered the ministry and security organs to investigate. On our side, we have ordered the Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) to prepare and submit a report on what had happened,” he said.

On Sunday, TPA director general Mr Deusdedit Kakoko told reporters that the locomotives belonged to TRL. It seem, however, that TRL had a dispute with the suppliers of the locomotives that TPA was not aware off at the time of clearing the consignment, according to Mr Kakoko.

“We realized that TRL and the suppliers were in a dispute that arose after the shipping line had offloaded the cargo at the Dar es Salaam port. Some missing documents including the bill of lading had to be recovered later,” he said.

But, The Citizen understands that 11 locomotives lying idle at the Dar es Salaam port were dispatched in fulfilment of the contract signed in 2013 between TRL and a US based firm, Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD). The US Company subcontracted the job to manufacture TRL engines to a South African company, DCD Group (Pty).

A statement issued by the then TRL director general, Mr Kipallo Kisamfu said Sh70.9 billion had been paid to the contractor on 13 locomotives which would be dispatched in three phases. He issued the statement on March 23, 2015 two days after receiving the first batch. The second and third batches were expected to be delivered in May and June, 2015 respectively.

“Hopefully, the locomotives are expected to improve TRL efficiency since one of the new locomotive can transport 32,500 tonnes of cargo annually as compared to the engines we have which have a capacity of 25,000 tonnes. Big Results Now (BRN) requires TRL to increase the volume of transported cargo from 200,000 in 2014 to 3 million in 2016,” reads part of the statement.

The then Transport Minister Dr Harrison Mwakyembe said in 2014 that the 13 locomotives were fully paid and that plans were to buy 274 freight wagons.

and 22 passenger coaches, alongside undertaking repair to some sections of the 2,707 kilometre Central Line in the 2014/15 fiscal year.

Efforts to reach TRL officials yesterday to clarify reasons for abandoning locomotives which had cost Tanzanians billions of taxpayer’s money proved futile.