Ngeleja’s escrow refund puzzle

Dar es Salaam. The decision by former Energy and Minerals minister Willian Ngeleja to hand back Sh40.4 million, part of the Tegeta escrow account loot, has prompted a flurry of questions, with authorities declining to comment on the unexpected development.

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) could not be drawn into discussing the implication of Mr Ngeleja’s gesture, which he revealed himself yesterday.

The institutions’ spokespersons all said they had learnt of the news through social media.

But the announcement, made at a press conference at Tanzania Information Services offices in Dar es Salaam, immediately sparked debate on its implications on the former minister and others who received billions of shillings from the escrow cookie jar in 2014.

Mr Ngeleja, who is the CCM MP for Sengerema in Mwanza Region, said he had paid the money back through TRA, and displayed a document showing that the money had been deposited in the TRA Commissioner for Internal Revenue’s account at CRDB Bank.

The former minister is among several high-ranking officials whose bank accounts received large sums of money from Mr James Rugemalira, one of the key suspects in the Tegeta escrow account scandal.

Mr Rugemalira and Mr Harbinder Sethi Singh have been charged with economic sabotage and money laundering after allegedly conspiring to irregularly withdraw Sh306 billion and sharing it among a cabal of senior state officials, influential businessmen, politicians, judges, religious leaders and other notable individuals.

The money was held at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) in a joint escrow account managed by Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) and Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL).

Mr Rugemalira and Mr Sethi, who are shown as the owners of IPTL, were accused in a parliamentary investigation of orchestrating a scheme to siphon the funds at the expense of the public utility. The businessmen are currently in remand awaiting trial.

Yesterday, Mr Ngeleja became the first of tens of individuals who received nearly Sh5 billion from an account operated by Mr Rugemalira to publicly declare that he had surrendered the money.

No reason has been forthcoming why the businessman paid out the money, but it has been speculated that the decision was meant to buy influence. The Sengerema MP, however, said he accepted the Sh40.4 million in good faith as it was a donation. “It is a normal thing for MPs to receive or seek financial aid from various sources for development purposes in their respective constituencies. So, I received the cash just like any other aid,” he said.

Mr Ngeleja said he did not know then that the donation would be associated with the escrow scandal.

He noted that he had filled in public service ethics forms acknowledging to have received the said amount.

“I have decided to return this money despite the fact that the person who gave it to me is still a suspect and has not been convicted. I have done this because I don’t want to be part of the scandal and any related accusations,” said the former minster.

Before yesterday, Mr Ngeleja had paid TRA Sh13 million as income tax on the same payment during the height of the escrow investigations. Yesterday, he said he did not mind the additional tax dues. But why he paid the refund to TRA remains a puzzle as the agency is not known to collect such payments.

It also left open the question whether all those who had received dubious payments from Mr Rugemalira would also line up to hand the cash back. Among them are former Cabinet ministers Andrew Chenge and Anna Tibaijuka, who each received Sh1.6 billion from the businessman.

This refund aspect is likely be fuelled by a hint yesterday by Auxiliary Bishop of Bukoba Catholic Diocese Methodious Kilaini that he too was considering surrendering his share of over Sh80 million.

Former Tanzania Investment Centre boss Emmanuel Ole Naiko also said yesterday that he had not drawn even a single cent from the Sh40.4 million paid into an account under his name since 2014.

The opposition Chadema and independent analysts also wondered whether Mr Ngeleja’s action absolved him from criminal liability and if the government’s acceptance of the money would not suggest it was providing an avenue for some of the influential suspects implicated in the escrow scandal to be let off the hook.

Former Kigoma South MP David Kafulila said if the government allowed escrow refunds, it would mirror on the External Payment Arrears (EPA) scandal, in which unnamed beneficiaries of over Sh133 billion in an import scheme were given a window to return monies they had illegally accessed for many years from BoT. Reports suggest less than Sh250 million out of Sh10 billion that the government had anticipated to recover from EPA suspects was ever paid back.

Reached for comment by The Citizen yesterday, TRA director of education and taxpayers services Mr Richard Kayombo said he could not comment on the issue surrounding Ngeleja’s reported refund as he had only read it on social media.

For his part, PCCB public relations officer Mr Mussa Misalaba said he could not reveal what was happening with their investigation on the escrow matter. “Revealing anything would be tantamount to interfering with investigations,” he said. PCCB boss Valentino Mlowola declared early in the year that all those who pocketed escrow proceeds would not walk scot-free.

Meanwhile, the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Robert Boaz said that his office was still processing information on the whole Tegeta escrow issue and could not be issuing any statements for now.