THERE was high drama at the parliamentary Committee on Local Authorities Accounts Committee (LAAC) yesterday when the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) failed to identify the shareholders of Simon Group of Companies, which owns a major stake in Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA).
LAAC Vice-Chairman, Abdallah Chikota,
prematurely called off the meeting after the top management of the city
council appeared to be misinformed over the controversial purchase of
the city’s public transport company.
MPs yesterday wanted the city council to
explain beyond reasonable doubt how Simon Group, whose Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Mr Robert Kisena, became one of the
shareholders in UDA.
Apart from Mr Kisena, MPs said that they were well informed that there were other shareholders in that company, but when the Dar es Salaam
City Lawyer, Mr Jumanne Mtinange, was asked to mention their names, he
said he did not know their identities but said he knew there were two or
three more shareholders in that company.
“I have no any document containing
details of Simon Group; therefore, I request that we be given more time
to work on this,’’ he pleaded before the committee.
This prompted Mr Chikota to summon the
Minister of State in the President’s Office responsible for Regional
Administration and Local Government, Mr George Simbachawene, to appear
before his committee on Friday morning to give answers to unanswered
questions that were left pending by the city council.
Mr Chikota also summoned Treasury
Registrar (TR) Lawrence Mafuru, Attorney General (AG) George Masaju and
the Chief Executive Officer of Business Registration Licensing Authority (BRELA), Frank Kanyusi, to the committee.
The committee grilled for more than two
hours the DCC top leadership led by the City Director, Ms Sipora Liana,
on how Simon Group of Companies acquired stake in UDA. However, despite
the simultaneous questions asked by lawmakers, none of them was able to
give convincing answers to the committee.
Simon Group is the company that
controversially bought the city’s public transport company, UDA, through
which it became the main shareholder of UDART, currently operating the
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that have revolutionalised Dar’s congested
transport system.
The committee’s members were referring
to the CAG report for the year ending June 2015. According to a report,
UDA Board of Directors sold the un-allotted shares in UDA without the
government approval.
It revealed that the board of directors
under the chairmanship of Mr Iddi Simba gave a 60pc discount on the
value of the shares to the prospective investor without any clear basis.
According to the CAG, the board chairman admitted receiving 320m/- in
his personal account from Simon Group Limited as consultation fee for
the services he claimed to have provided to the investor, which raises a
serious conflict of interest.
Ulyankulu MP John Kadutu (CCM) demanded
clarification as to why 320m/- were deposited in Mr Simba’s personal
account. Responding to the question, the Dar es Salaam
City Director said she was also worried to see such huge amount of
money being deposited in that account without any clarification. Ms
Liana has only three months in office since she was appointed by
President John Magufuli in July as new Dar es Salaam City Director.
The MP further wanted to know how Simon
Group acquired stake in UDA, putting to task the city council’s
economist, Ms Sara Yohana, to give clarifications.
According to her, after Simon Group
acquired un-allotted shares at a contract price of 7m/-, he was given
powers by the UDA Board of Directors to supervise the city’s public
transport company as a big shareholder.
The city council’s Acting Internal
Auditor, Mr Eusebi Marenge, also said the company was giver powers by
the board. In UDA shares, the DCC owned 51 per cent while the Treasury
owned the remaining 49 per cent. The city council sold its shares in
2013 and currently the money that the council received (4.6bn/-) is
deposited at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT).
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