| Documents link Kapuya with firm in UDA scam | Send to a friend |
| Sunday, 15 January 2012 11:32 |
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The Citizen Reporter Dar es Salaam. Official bank and court documents have linked Urambo West MP, Prof Juma Kapuya, to Simon Group Limited, the firm that is currently under both a parliamentary and government probe in a suspect deal to acquire the Dar es Salaam public commuter bus company, UDA. For some time now, Simon Group officials have severally and publicly denied any link or business association with Prof Kapuya, a former minister for Labour, Employment and Youth Development.Mr Simon Kisena, a director in the company which claimed to have acquired 51 per cent shares in UDA repeatedly said that Prof Kapuya was not a co-shareholder after selling his stake. But evidence emerging from the Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB) paints a different picture. TIB wrote a notice to Mr Kapuya on December 7 last year to recall a debt of nearly Sh6bn advanced to Simon Group in 2008 to purchase and run an oil mill in Mwanza. In the letter with reference number TIB/mg/2021/VOL.V11, TIB informs Prof Kapuya of the bank’s intention to take legal action to recover the amount if the company failed to repay the amount by January 6 this year.“Please be informed that in the event you fail to pay before the stated date, legal action to recover the amount in arrears shall be instituted against you without further notice and at you own peril as to costs and other consequences,” reads part of the letter. After receipt of the letter, Simon Group rushed to court and has successfully sought a High Court order restraining the bank from recalling the credit facility pending a case the company has filed against TIB. Simon Group instituted a case against TIB last week in which it sought a declaration that TIB’s purported recall of the credit facilities granted to them was unjustified, erroneous, and unlawful. The company has instead asked the court to order the bank to pay them Sh856million being loss of revenue occasioned by TIB’s failure to carry out rescue package processes or bail out facilitation in respect of the company owing to the impact of the world economic crisis on the 2008/09 cotton season. The company claims that the world economic downturn of 2008 disrupted and depleted its working capital as the market of its product - edible oil - resulted in heavy losses amounting to Sh856.6million. In 2009, the government set up a rescue package to companies that had been affected by the crisis, and the company claimed it applied for it from the Bank of Tanzania which directed them to channel its application through its banker-TIB. “We (Simon Group) complied and a report indicating the extent of the loss we suffered was duly prepared but TIB failed to submit the application for rescue package, hence making us lose revenue amounting to Sh 856.6million on not being bailed out by government rescue package,” the company argues. In the case, the company has sought permanent injunction to restrain TIB from taking any precipitated action against them on account of credit facilities granted to them for being causative of their inability to service the credit facilities. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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