No hard feelings, says fired Kilango

Dar es Salaam/Mwanza. Former Shinyanga regional commissioner Anne Kilango-Malecela says she harbours no hard feelings following her surprise sacking by President John Magufuli.

“I have received the President’s decision with a clean heart. That’s all I can say,” she told The Citizen by telephone from Shinyanga yesterday.

Meanwhile, several senior district administration officials in Shinyanga Region commented on Mrs Kilango-Malecela’s dismissal for wrongly asserting that there were no ghost workers in the region.

Kishapu district commissioner Hawa Ng’humbi said she was surprised to see Mrs Kilango-Malecela announcing on television last week that the region had no phantom workers.

“I was left wondering how that was possible as I had not come across a report from my district to that effect. I wondered how I could have been bypassed and such a report sent directly to the RC,” she said.

Acting Kishapu district executive director Alphonce Gagambobyaki said his office did not know who sent the report to the RC, adding that a copy he had seen was not signed.

“This office has had four DEDs since February, this year. It’s difficult to know who compiled the report since it was not signed,” he said.

Mr Gagambobyaki said he believes accurate information would be released soon after a fact-finding team sent to the region completed its mission.

Shinyanga district commissioner Josephine Mtatiro declined to comment on the matter.

“I don’t have anything to say, I can’t speak about regional matters,” she said.

The district’s executive director, Mr Lewis Kalinjuna, also declined to comment on whether his office had misled Mrs Kilango-Malecela.

“I can’t say anything. I’m leaving it to those with accurate information to clear the air,” he said.

Kahama District Commissioner Vita Kawawa said he was in a meeting and asked The Citizen to send him a text message to which he never replied.

President Magufuli sacked Mrs Kilango-Malecela on Monday, less that a month after appointing her.

Dr Magufuli said Mrs Kilango-Malecela had failed to comply with his directive to RCs to identify and strike ghost workers off local authority records and report directly to him.

The then RC was quoted by a section of the media saying that a thorough search had established that there were no ghost workers in Shinyanga Region.

President Magufuli said on Monday that he was surprised to hear the Shinyanga RC declaring there were no ghost workers in the region, adding that he sent an investigation team to verify the authenticity of the reports.

“The team informed me they identified 45 phantom workers in the region by Sunday. I know that is not all. The 45 ghost workers have caused the government a Sh339.9 million loss,” he said.

The President said he was puzzled as to why the RC gave misleading information since he had made it clear that nobody would be punished for reporting the actual number of ghost workers in their areas of jurisdiction.

“I’ve asked myself several questions. I’ve repeatedly done so without any answers and I have regrettably decided to revoke the appointment of the Shinyanga RC. She will be assigned other duties,” he said.

President Magufuli also sacked Shinyanga Regional Administrative Secretary Abdul Dachi for failing to properly assist Mrs Kilango-Malecela. “On the same grounds, I revoke the appointment of the Shinyanga RAS. It seems the RAS misled the RC, who, unfortunately, did not know that she was being deceived,” he said.

Mrs Kilango-Malecela, who was Same East MP until last August, was appointed by President Magufuli on March 13 and sworn in on March 15 along with 25 other RCs.