Moment of truth as Bunge readies for escrow report

 
Come tomorrow and the moment of truth will have arrived with regard to the controversial Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) escrow account scandal that has kept the nation in suspense for the past eight months.

 Despite concerted attempts within and outside the corridors of State power to keep the report under wraps, Speaker of the National Assembly Anna Makinda yesterday gave the assurance that it would be tabled in Parliament tomorrow.

So as to avail the MPs ample time, said the Speaker, there would be three days starting tomorrow to debate the eagerly awaited escrow scam documents.  She further said she had instructed the police that the man arrested for breaking into Parliament offices and stealing some documents on escrow should remain in custody until the report is tabled, debated and concluded.

As the Speaker gave the assurance, fierce campaigns were raging outside the august House in a bid to discredit the report and those who have been championing the investigation on the scandal.

 Yesterday, a section of the media carried stories based on a bogus escrow report, which purports that no one had been adversely implicated—complete with a rider that even the Sh306 billion figure claimed to be Tanesco’s money was a lie, and that money was property of IPTL/Pan Africa Power Solutions Tanzania Limited (PAP).

But, yesterday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, Mr Zitto Kabwe, dismissed the leak as fake and sheer propaganda aimed at defending those implicated in the multibillion shillings rip-off.

 “It’s a fake circulated online to shift the attention of the debate on the real Tegeta escrow account…if those who supported the deal believe they did the right thing, then they need not panic,” Mr Kabwe told The Citizen over the phone.

One Kiswahili tabloid, which published a pro-IPTL story in almost all its pages yesterday, claimed that the move by Mr Kabwe to table the report as planned would plunge the Parliament into a constitutional crisis.

Some legislators received reports on Sunday night that bore malicious accusations against the Kigoma North MP and PAC chairman. Some of the MPs who received the smear campaign documents are nominated MP James Mbatia (NCCR-Mageuzi) and Musoma urban legislator Stephen Nyerere (Chadema).

 Unknown people on Sunday night distributed copies to MPs whose residences they could reach and left copies of accusations against the PAC boss at their doorsteps.

Earlier, the cash PAP collected was put at $122 million (Sh207 billion), but the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report has clarified that the amount was actually Sh306 billion.

 This means that even after PAP chief executive chairman, Harbinder Singh Sethi, pocketed a whopping Sh207 billion, the cash-strapped power utility would still have to pay him a further Sh100 billion, which was not deposited in the escrow account.