Former Cabinet ministers Basil Mramba sit in a police vehicle outside the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday after they were each jailed for three years and fined Sh5 million for abuse of office and occasioning the government a Sh11.7 billion loss. PHOTOS | SAID KHAMIS
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After the judgment was read, Mramba’s wife stepped into the dock where his husband was standing, extended her hand to him as tears freely streamed down her cheeks in sadness and apparent disbelief.
Dar es Salaam. There were audible groans of disbelief and visible freely-flowing tears at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday after former cabinet ministers Basil Mramba, 75, and Daniel Yona, 76, were sentenced to serve three years in jail for abuse of office and causing Sh11.7 billion loss to the government.
The court acquitted former permanent secretary with the Treasury Gray Mgonja who was charged alongside the two for what the judges said was lack of evidence.
After the judgment was read, Mramba’s wife stepped into the dock where his husband was standing, extended her hand to him as tears freely streamed down her cheeks in sadness and apparent disbelief.
It took some effort from relatives of the ministers who had thronged the court to hear the fate of their loved ones to lead Mrs Mramba outside the court as she nearly fainted.
Relatives and friends of the convicted ministers were in tears and clearly in deep grief, apparently in not believing what had just befallen the once-powerful family heads, lawmakers and government officials.
Immediately after the sentence, lawyers for the former ministers—Mr Peter Swai and Eliasa Msuya—said they were moving to challenge the decision in the High Court.
Mramba and Yona who served as Finance and Energy and Mineral ministers respectively in Benjamin William Mkapa’s administration, were first arraigned in November 2008 along Mr Mgonja and charged with eleven counts of abuse of office and occasioning loss to the government.
The prosecution had alleged that the former ministers broke the law when they granted tax exemption to Alex Stewart Assayers Government Business Corporation, a company that was controversially hired to audit gold in Tanzania in 2003.
The deal saw the company receiving a whopping $50 million (about Sh65 billion) in gold audit fees paid at an average of Sh1.3 billion per month from June 2003 to August, 2007. The company completed the assignment and left the country in August, 2007
Two of the three-member-panel that heard the case—Judge Sam Rumanyika and Mr Saul Kinemela, a senior official in the Labour Commission, said the prosecution proved their case “beyond all reasonable doubt.”
They rejected defence given by the former ministers that the then President Benjamin Mkapa had authorised the hiring of the gold assayers firm.
They said there was no sufficient evidence that the Head of State had directed urgent procurement of the Alex Steward Assayers without following the necessary procedure.
They further said that, the Government Notices that were granted by Mramba for tax exceptions were arbitrarily issued in total disregard of an advice by the Attorney General (AG) and officers from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), leading to pecuniary loss. The chairman of the panel read the judgment which disagreed with the finding of the two other members. He differed in evaluation of evidence that led to the conviction of the two.
The court convicted Mramba in all eleven counts he faced. He was given three years in jail for each. However, the sentences will run concurrently, meaning he will only stay behind bars for three years.
The court found Yona guilty of five counts and sentenced him to serve three years in jail for each count. His terms, like those of his fellow ex-minister, will also run concurrently.
The two will also pay Sh5 million in fine each for the offence of causing a loss to the government.
Before the sentencing, advocates for the convicts pleaded for lenient sentences considering the two men’s age and “poor health”.
According to the lawyers, the two have no other criminal record and had spent most of their adult life serving the nation at different capacities and they frequently travel to India for medical treatment.
Their arraignment followed three years of investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the police into the suspicious gold auditing deal.
The court in August last year found all accused with a case to answer and ordered them to defend themselves.
Mr Mramba had admitted authorising tax exemption to Alex Stewart Assayers but claimed a clause in a contract that Bank of Tanzania (BoT) entered with the company allowed him to do so.
According to Mr Mramba, the BoT regulation was clear that the contract that the bank entered relating to money was to enjoy tax exemption.
He said he was never advised by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) that he should not allow for that exemption to Alex Stewart as alleged by the prosecution.
He said a TRA letter on tax exemption was sent to the Treasury PS, Mr Mgonja, on June 24, 2003 at a time the contract had already been signed ten days before.
“This advice did not have any significance to us by the time it reached my office,” argued Mr Mramba.
