Daniel Yona and Basil Mramba

The Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday set June 27 as date for determining over whether former cabinet ministers Basil Mramba and Daniel Yona charged with abuse office will have a case to answer.

The two, who served during President Benjamin Mkapa’s term in office, are accused of occasioning the government a loss amounting to 11.7bn/- through tax exemptions.

The prosecution alleges that the duo willfully committed the offence between 2003 and 2007, in respect of a firm known as Stewart Assayers.

The case was instituted following three years of investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and the police into the suspicious hiring of Alex Stewart (Assayers) Government Business Corporation (ASA) to audit gold production in Tanzania.

The corporation was in 2003 controversially assigned a contract which saw it receive a whopping 65bn/- (USD 50 million) in gold audit fees. The company completed the assignment and left the country in August, 2007. The ASA was paid an average of 1.3bn/- (USD1 million) every month from June 2003 to August, 2007.

By JULIUS BWAHAMA, Tanzania Daily News