PCCB tightens noose on missing escrow billions

President Jakaya Kikwete

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New property, mainly in real estate and reportedly bought in South Africa and Australia between November 2013 and October 2014, has also been seized at the PCCB’s orders pending the outcome of the investigation into the scandal as directed by Parliament.

Dar es Salaam. The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has seized bank accounts and overseas property believed to have been bought with the missing Sh306 billion escrow cash.

Sources close to the investigators confirmed yesterday that a couple of bank accounts stashed with billions of shillings have been traced and frozen in the US.

New property, mainly in real estate and reportedly bought in South Africa and Australia between November 2013 and October 2014, has also been seized at the PCCB’s orders pending the outcome of the investigation into the scandal as directed by Parliament.

The controversial bank accounts and property have been traced to individuals believed to have benefitted from the escrow funds withdrawn fraudulently from the central bank and shared among senior government officials and influential businessmen. The property is said to have been registered suspiciously, some by foreign business associates of the prime suspects.

Meanwhile, the investigators are trying to establish the whereabouts of Tanzanian-born Kenyan businessman Harbinder Singh Sethi, whose questionable takeover of Independent Power Tanzania Limited set off the chain of events leading to the monumental power sector scandal.

Mr Sethi, whose Pan African Power Solutions (PAP) is at the centre of the matter, has not been seen in public since the drama around the withdrawal and payment of the escrow billions started. It culminated last week in a Parliament resolution that is likely to see a shake-up in President Jakaya Kikwete’s Cabinet.

PCCB Director General Edward Hosea told The Citizen that investigations were progressing well but said he would not be in a position to share the findings with the media just yet. “We are carrying on with our work and cannot say anything related to the case,” he said when asked about the foreign bank accounts and the whereabouts of Mr Sethi.

In October, The Citizen learnt that Mr Sethi had been admitted to a South African hospital. He has been quoted this week saying he will fight on. He was reportedly speaking from an undisclosed location. In the meantime, his local associates have been busy in the corridors of justice, filing more cases in an attempt to forestall moves by the Tanzania Revenue Authority and any government agency to take action that might hurt their business.

PAP and IPTL filed a fresh suit yesterday at the Tax Revenue Appeals Board seeking the arrest of TRA Commissioner General Rished Bade for cancelling the capital gains certificate in relation to the sale of IPTL shares. The withdrawal of the certificates invalidates the PAP takeover of IPTL. It said in the suit, which also listed the Registrar of Companies (Brela) as a party, that TRA had gone ahead despite a court injunction against such a move.

Meanwhile, all was quiet in Government circles yesterday as the public awaits word from State House on the fate of at least two cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats implicated in the escrow scandal. Almost a week after Parliament passed a resolution advising the President to drop ministers and officials who directly facilitated the deal or were mentioned adversely in the matter, there was little sign that a breakthrough was likely any time soon.

President Kikwete continued to preside over light work at State House, as advised by his doctors following successful cancer surgery in the US. This has not dimmed the national public debate that centres around what he intends to do with the National Assembly resolutions passed last Saturday.