A statement released at midnight yesterday and sent to mass media organs from the Musoma State Lodge did not give any reason(s) for the termination of Mr Mlowola’s services.
Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli on Thursday September 06 removed the anti-corruption chief, Mr Valentine Mlowola, from the office to which he was appointed in January 2016.
The move has generated new debate on the state of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) – and exactly what is going on inside the country’s premier anti-corruption agency.
A statement released at midnight yesterday and sent to mass media organs from the Musoma State Lodge did not give any reason(s) for the termination of Mr Mlowola’s services.
But it did reveal that the president has appointed the Kagera Regional Administrative Secretary, Mr Diwani Athumani, to take over leadership of the sensitive anti-corruption watchdog. Mr Athumani is a former director of criminal investigation (DCI) at Police Force Headquarters.
Mr Mlowola becomes the first PCCB director general to be removed from office mid-term. His immediate predecessor, Edward Hosea, served from November 2006 to December 2015 when he was also removed from office by President Magufuli.
This latest development at PCCB raises questions on the bureau’s performance in general.
Lack of convictions at the courts
Indeed, the writing was on the wall since August last year, regarding whether or not Mr Mlowola would continue to lead the bureau for much longer. That was when President Magufuli paid a surprise visit at PCCB headquarters, and expressed anxiety over the bureau’s pace at investigating and successfully prosecuting cases of grand corruption.
An apparently irritated President Magufuli told the PCCB leaders that there was much which was going on in the bureau that was not exactly praiseworthy.
“We have uncovered Sh48 billion in fake claims on subsidized farm equipment. We have discovered 19,500 ghost workers. We have discovered 56,000 fake poor households lining up to receive TASA (Tanzania Social Action Fund) funds. All these are done through corruption, and I want to see you taking appropriate action,” President Magufuli fumed – stressing that he wanted to see more grand corruption perpetrators jailed.
Since that time, President Magufuli – who initiated a spirited anti-corruption drive since he came to power on November 5, 2015 – has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with PCCB vis-a-vis the envisaged war on corruption in all its forms.
That visit came just a week after the president had appointed Brigadier General John Mbungo as deputy director general of the PCCB.
In any case, people in the know say Mr Mlowola just as soon “lost grip and visibility as PCCB head” – virtually conceding more space to his newly-installed deputy who was thereafter seen participating in many major events.
In the event, the expectation of many was that the president would have picked Mr Mbungo to succeed Mr Mlowola at the helm in the anti-graft drive.
Alas, that was not to be. Instead, Mr Athumani was the person chosen to head PCCB henceforth – the very same person whom the president had removed as DCI on his birthday, October 29, 2016.
The removal of Mr Diwani came on the back of a surprise inspection tour by the president made of the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to see for himself over 50 elephant tusks that were seized during a special anti-poaching operation.
There were rumors at the time that some top police officers were shielding the main culprit in the seizure, one Yusuf Ally, 36, alias ‘Mpemba’ from legal action against him.
This irked the president even more, seeing that PCCB was virtually sitting on its hands, while the newly-established anti-corruption court was idle largely on account of the bureau’s laxity and lackadaisical way of doing things.
Admittedly, there already were high-profile criminal cases in court, including the Tegeta/IPTL Escrow Account swindling at the central Bank of Tanzania; the cases against former TRA Commissioner General Harry Kitilya; a prominent lawyer, Dr Ringo Tenga; top officials of the Tanzania Football Federation, etc.
Some of the cases have taken years, stagnating in court reportedly because the PCCB has not completed its investigations.
Reliable sources tell The Citizen that PCCB’s poor investigation capacity is one of the main challenges that have been troubling the bureau for long now. This was especially after the removal of Hosea as the bureau’s head, followed by the departure of several experienced principal officials, thus further crippling PCCB’s ability and capability to dealing with high-profile,’sensitive’ corruption cases.
