Former Air Tanzania Company Ltd (ATCL) managing
director David Mattaka (in t-shirt) is pictured under tight police
escort at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate�s Court in Dar es Salaam
Mattaka and PPRA ex-chief executive officer Dr Ramadhani Mlinga
both appeared in the same dock at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court
in Dar es Salaam to answer separate counts of abuse of office,
occasioning a loss of $43,267,702 (over 86bn/-) to the government (in
the case of Mattaka); and outright forgery (Mlinga).
Also arraigned before principal resident magistrate Respicius
Mwijage was former PPRA advocate Bertha Soka, who is charged with
forgery alongside Mlinga.
According to the prosecution team led by principal state attorney
Timon Vitalis, in October 2007 Mattaka intentionally abused his position
as ATCL boss by signing an agreement for the national carrier to lease
an Airbus A320-214 aircraft from Wallis Trading Inc., a Liberian
company, without following proper tender procedures in compliance with
public procurement laws.
This amounted to negligence on Mattaka’s part, and caused the
government as guarantor of the deal to suffer a pecuniary loss of
$42,459,316.12 which ATCL owed Wallis Trading Inc, the prosecution
charged.
Mattaka is also alleged to have gone on to disregard technical
advice in signing several lease acceptance certificates for the same
aircraft, eventually causing ATCL as a company to suffer further losses
of $772,402.08 (paid to the Aeromantenimiento, S.A company as
maintenance service charges) and $35,984.82 (paid to Lantal Textiles,
Inc for the purchase of upholstery, carpet and drape material for the
same aircraft).
The former ATCL chief is being charged under the Economic and
Organized Crime Control Act (Cap.200 R.E 2002) and the Prevention and
Combating of Corruption Act of 2007. According to the prosecution side,
this makes him ineligible for bail at this point in the case.
“He (Mattaka) is charged with an economic offence and the amount
involved is more than $42,999,” argued lead prosecutor Vitalis who was
assisted by three detectives from the Prevention and Combating of
Corruption Bureau (PCCB).
Mlinga and Soka are named in only the sixth and final count of the
charge sheet, whereby the prosecution alleged that on March 19, 2008,
with intent to deceive, the duo forged minutes purporting to show that
the PPRA held a meeting to discuss an application for retrospective
approval of the ATCL aircraft lease agreement.
Prosecutors said they did not have any objection to bail for the
two former PPRA senior officials because their offence (forgery) is
apparently bailable. Both Mlinga and Soka were therefore granted bail
after managing to secure one reliable surety to sign a bond of 10
million/- each, while Mattaka was returned to remand prison.
None of the three accused were allowed to enter any official plea
on the case because the matter they are charged with is normally heard
by the High Court, or when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)
issues a special certificate for a lower court to handle the case.
Magistrate Mwijage adjourned the case to March 29 when it comes up for mention as investigations are still in progress.
HOW THE GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY BROKE THE NEWS ON THE AIRBUS LEASING SCAM
The story on allegations of corruption in the Airbus leasing
scandal first appeared in the Guardian on Sunday, our sister paper, more
than four years ago. The paper published a series of investigative news
articles on the matter, starting with its February 12, 2012 issue when a
special front-page report revealed how President Jakaya Kikwete’s
cabinet was royally duped over the deal.
It noted that a report submitted to a parliamentary committee in
January 2012 showed that “the total cost for leasing the used Airbus
A320 is about $200 million, monies which are enough to buy two brand new
aircraft of the same generation.”
The Guardian on Sunday investigation also uncovered that although
the leasing deal needed cabinet approval before being sealed, top
officials at Air Tanzania and the then Ministry of Infrastructure
Development opted to sign the agreement without such approval. The
cabinet chaired by the then president Kikwete was informed nine months
after the agreement was signed, hence acting only as a “rubber stamp” to
approve the deal.
During the whole process, Mattaka was the ATCL chief executive officer, while Andrew Chenge served as infrastructure minister.
ATCL leased the Airbus A320-214 from Wallis Trading Inc of Liberia
in 2007 for a period of six years (72 months), but the plane was in Air
Tanzania’s hands for just 48 months, 41 of which saw it grounded for
major technical maintenance in France.
The shoddy lease agreement stipulated that the leasing charges
would remain the same whether the plane was flying or grounded, for any
reason whatsoever.
An aviation expert said at the time it was inconceivable that the
lease rate of $370,000 per month (over 800 million/- at current exchange
rates) remained the same even if the plane was undergoing routine
maintenance.
The ailing national flag carrier has been reduced to a poor
financial state, operating just one aircraft even though it has over 200
employees on its payroll.
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