Business
Tanzania shuts down its UK diamond office
Between 1994 and 2000, De Beers paid $4.05 million to Tansort for the sorting of 901,300 carats of diamond. Photo/REUTERS
Posted Monday, March 22 2010 at 00:00
The investigation revealed gross misappropriation of funds but the government is yet to give a detailed explanation on the firm’s activities and why it does not remit money to the Treasury.
A human rights lawyer Tundu Lissu, told The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam last week that the closure of Tansort does not mean the corruption allegations are also closed for the firm.
Mr Lissu said to do so is a grave mistake because the law does not stipulate that.
However, PAC chairman John Cheyo said his committee wanted the firm to be closed long ago and gave “full blessing” the closure as price checking and quality control was directed by De Beers.
“The accountant and audit general will continue to follow the matter in a normal manner and report. We are satisfied with the progress and we hope by end-year things will improve,” Mr Cheyo, a Member of Parliament for United Democratic Party, said.
Hansard records indicate that on July 17, 2006 when tabling the budget for the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, the then minister Dr Ibrahim Msabaha, said Tansort was to be allocated $1 million for the training of its officials.
The sum was also meant to meet office rent expenses for the company, which, according to the minister, was to be moved to Tanzania.
The PAC in 2004 formed the probe committee after it found that answers given by the accounts officials from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals “were not satisfactory.”
The report says that the processing of the diamonds before they are handed over to Tansort for sorting is undertaken entirely by Williamson Diamond Ltd.
“What a Tansort officer checks is only the weight and seal — but the existing system does not allow the officer to determine whether the size and quality of diamonds he has received are the same as that sent from the mine,” says the report.
The committee also looked into the establishment of Tansort and why $2.5 billion accruing from sorting of diamonds were not remitted to the Treasury.
The committee found that Tansort does not legally exist since its creation in 1966.
The government has failed to explain how it was created or produce documents to support its creation.
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