EPA: Mkapa, Mangula can save Dar from embarassment

A year after independent auditors Ernst&Young unearthed the theft of Tsh133 billion ($132 million) from the External Payment Arrears Account (EPA) at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), we are finally seeing some action on the ground.

The government has commissioned an audit of that special central bank account following intense pressure from opposition politicians, the media and development partners.

By November 12 this year, the government had arraigned 20 suspects in the courts on various charges linked to the loss of Tsh45.2 billion ($41 million) during the years 2000 to 2005/06.

Four of those arraigned are senior BoT employees and the others are business people.

One of them, Rajabu Maranda, is also the treasurer of the ruling party, CCM. Another, Jeetu Patel, is a supporter of the party and government.

Twenty-two companies were identified in the audit as involved in the theft. Some of them were genuine, but forged documents to access the funds. Others were outright fakes, established solely for the purpose of fraud.

Investigations into nine of the firms linked to the theft of Tsh90.3 billion ($82 million) saw Tsh69.3 billion ($63 million) of the loot restored under strict secrecy, which was proof enough that some crime was indeed committed. Hence the cases currently in court.

However, this has failed to quell the popular sentiment that not enough has been done to seek justice.

The general consensus is that those in court today are scapegoats and not the real culprits.

They are minnows, not the barracudas who should be facing the full wrath that the masterminds behind the crime deserve.

A crime of this magnitude involved not mere clerks, but principal officials in government, the banks and the ruling party, who are being shielded from their day in court.

The election years 2000 and 2005 saw CCM easily trounce opposition parties at the polls.

It had no shortage of cash and other election props: Party-colour T-shirts, handbags, cloth-caps, wrap-around clothing (khangas and vitenge), transport and food.

Perhaps as an afterthought following the audit findings, critics linked that sudden affluence during election years to the BoT theft.

It is not good enough, for example, for the deniers to claim that, if indeed any of that loot reached party coffers, it was courtesy of individual party members. The party never commissioned the crime and, as such, should not be held responsible, they argue.