Acacia, kampuni ya uchimbaji madini iliyokuwa na shughuli zake nchini Tanzania kabla ya kuingia kwenye mgogoro mkubwa na Serikali, inadaiwa kutumia takriban Shilingi bilioni tatu (Dola za Kimarekani milioni 1.2) kwa mwaka kulipa maafisa waandamizi wa Serikali kati ya 2008 na 2015, uamuzi ambao maafisa wa kampuni hiyo walilamika kwamba ulikuwa kinyume na sera zake dhidi ya rushwa na ufisadi.
Kwa mujibu wa barua pepe ambazo gazeti la nchini Canada la The Globe & Mail imezipata, Acacia, iliyokuwa moja ya kampuni kubwa za uchimbaji madini ya dhahabu nchini, ilikuwa ikilipa mabilioni hayo kwa watumishi wa umma waliokuwa wakifanya kazi kwenye kikosi kazi maalum cha ulinzi na usalama wa taifa, kinachojulikana kama NTF, au Tanzanian National Law Enforcement Taskforce.
Barua pepe hizo ziliibuliwa hadharani kwa mara ya kwanza kwenye kesi inayoendelea katika Mahakama Kuu ya Haki ya nchini Uingereza ambapo raia kumi wa Tanzania wanalishitaki soko la dhahabu kwa kutoa ithibati kwa dhahabu zinazouzwa na Barrick Gold, ambayo sasa imechukua umiliki wa Acacia, kwa madai kuwa dhahabu hizo zinapatikana kwenye mazingira yaliyojaa ukiukwaji wa haki za binadamu.
Barua pepe hizo zinaonesha kwamba Acacia ilikuwa ikilipa hongo hizo kwa maafisa wanaokadiriwa kufika 60 waliokuwa wakifanya kazi NTF, ambacho kazi zake zinajumuisha kupambana na uhalifu mkubwa kama vile ugaidi na ufisadi na ambacho mkuu wake wake huripoti moja kwa moja kwa Rais wa nchi.
NTF inadaiwa kuundwa na maafisa kutoka Jeshi la Polisi, Idara ya Usalama wa Taifa, na Jeshi la Wananchi.
Kikosi kazi nyeti
NTF kimekabidhiwa kazi ya kulinda miundombinu nyeti ya Serikali na ile ya sekta binafsi nchini, ndiyo maana pia kikawa kinahusika na kutoa huduma kwa Acacia, ambapo kulingana na mahitaji ya kampuni hiyo, NFT ilikuwa na vitengo vitano, kila kimoja kikiwa na maafisa kati ya watatu mpaka saba.
Vitengo hivi vinapatikana Kahama, ambapo vipo viwili, Tarime, Mwanza, na kitengo cha tano kikifanya kazi kwenye maeneo ambayo Acacia ilikuwa na maslahi nayo.
Kwa mujibu wa barua pepe zilizopatikana na gazeti la The Globe & Mail, malipo kwa kikosi kazi hicho yalikuwa tofauti na malipo ambayo Acacia ilikuwa ikilipa kwa Serikali kwa ulinzi ambao Tanzania ilikuwa ikitoa kwenye migodi na vituo vyake vya kazi.
Malipo ya Acacia kwa maafisa wa kikosi kazi hicho yalijumuisha malipo ya fedha za kujikimu, au per diems, ambapo barua pepe hizo zilizowekwa hadharani zinaonesha kwamba viwango vyake vilizidi viwango vya malipo ya posho ya kijikimu vilivyowekwa na Serikali kwa watumishi wake.
Mbali na malipo hayo ya fedha za kujikimu, maafisa wa kikosi kazi hicho wanaripotiwa pia kulipiwa malazi, chakula, na mafuta ya gari.
Ukiukwaji wa sera
Mazungumzo ya maafisa waandamizi wa Acacia yaliyofichuka baada ya barua pepe zao kuwekwa hadharani yanaonesha kwamba maafisa hao walikuwa na wasiwasi juu ya malipo hayo waliyokuwa wakifanya kwa maafisa wa Serikali, huku wengine wakikiri kwamba utaratibu huo unakiuka sera za kampuni zilizowekwa kupambana na rushwa na ufisadi.
Nick Rowell, moja ya viongozi waandamizi wa kampuni hiyo, kwa mfano, alisema kwenye barua pepe yake kwa wenzake kwamba malipo hayo kwa maafisa wa NTF yaliifanya Acacia “kutokuendana na sera zake juu ya kuzuia rushwa.” Kwenye barua pepe yake ya awali, Rowell alitaka malipo hayo “yasitishwe mara moja.”
Kiongozi mwingine mwandamizi wa kampuni hiyo, Peter Geleta, alisema kwamba baadhi yao wamekuwa wakilalamikia kuhusu malipo hayo kwa miezi 18, akiongeza, “Na ni wazi kwangu kwamba baadhi ya watu wetu wenyewe wamekuwa wakiulinda huu utaratibu.”
Hata hivyo, kulikuwa na hofu kwa baadhi ya viongozi wa kampuni hiyo juu ya namna malipo hayo yanavyoweza kusitishwa, huku wengine wakigusia ukubwa na nguvu ambazo kikosi kazi hicho kinazo, kikiwa na mafungamano na vigogo kwenye nafasi nyeti Serikalini.
Kwa mfano, mshauri wa masuala ya ulinzi wa kampuni ya Acacia, A.D Firth, alishauri kwamba kikosi kazi hicho kimekuwa kikilinda maslahi ya Acacia kwa kipindi cha muda mrefu, akisema, “Mabadiliko yoyote ya kimahusiano [kati ya Acacia na kikosi kazi] ni lazima yafanyike kwa umakini mkubwa siyo tu kwa sababu za kisiasa bali pia kiutendaji.”
Malipo hayo, ambayo barua pepe hizo zinaonesha kwamba yalikuwa yakizidi kuwa makubwa kila uchao, na ambayo yalikuwa hayajumuishwi kwenye bajeti ya ulinzi ya Acacia, yaliendelea mpaka Septemba 2015.
‘Hatuhusiki’
Ilipotafutwa na gazeti la The Globe & Mail, Barrick Gold, ambayo inamiliki na kuendesha migodi miwili nchini Tanzania, ule wa Bulyanhulu na North Mara, iligoma kujibu maswali kuhusu barua pepe hizo za ndani za Acacia.
Hata hivyo, msemaji wa kampuni hiyo, Kathy du Plessis, alikiambia chombo hicho cha habari kwamba Acacia ilikuwa na bodi na menejimenti huru mpaka pale Barrick ilipoibinafsisha hapo mwaka 2019.
Msemaji huyo alisema kwamba si Acacia wala Barrick walikuwa na udhibiti juu ya kikosi kazi hicho, au polisi, akiongeza kwamba kikosi kazi hicho hakikuhusika kwa namna yoyote ile kwenye ukiukwaji wa haki za binadamu ambao raia hao wa Tanzania wameifikisha Barrick mahakamani.
Kwenye kesi yao hiyo dhidi ya soko la dhahabu la London, raia hao wa Tanzania wanadai kwamba kushindwa kwa soko hilo kufuata sheria zake zenyewe kwenye kutoa ithibati kwa dhahabu chafu kumekuwa na athari kubwa kwenye maisha yao.
“Tuna imani kwamba madai yaliyofikishwa mbele ya Mahakama ya hapo London hayana msingi wowote, na tunasubiri kwa Mahakama hiyo kupata fursa ya kuitolea uamuzi hii kesi na kuliweka hili jambo pembeni,” alisema du Plessis.
Kampuni ya Barrick Gold imekuwa ikikosolewa vikali na wanaharakati wa haki za binadamu na mazingira kwa madai ya uvunjifu wa haki za binadamu, hususan kwenye mgodi wake wa North Mara, uliopo mkoani Mara.
Mbali na kesi hiyo inayoendelea katika Mahakama ya London, Barrick pia inakabiliwa na kesi nyingine huko nchini Canada ambapo Watanzania 21 wameiburuza kampuni hiyo kortini, wakiishutumu kwa ukiukwaji wa haki za binadamu.
Hata hivyo, Barrick siku zote imekuwa ikikanusha vikali madai haya ya uvunjifu wa haki za binadamu, huku Rais na Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa kampuni hiyo, Mark Bristow akisema kwenye taarifa yake ya Disemba 13, 2022 kwamba kampuni yake ni kampuni inayoheshimu haki za binadamu na kudhamiria juhudi za maendeleo kwa taifa.
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Barrick subsidiary’s payments to Tanzanian officials triggered concerns over anti-corruption breaches, company e-mails show
former subsidiary in Africa was paying as much as US$1.2-million annually to a powerful group of Tanzanian government officials as recently as 2015, triggering internal concerns that the payments were violating its anti-corruption policies, company e-mails and memos show.
The subsidiary, British-based Acacia Mining, was making the payments to dozens of Tanzanian civil servants on a national law-enforcement task force, known as the NTF, which reports directly to Tanzania’s president. The payments were in addition to Acacia’s regular funding of Tanzania’s civilian police for security around its
gold mines.
The e-mails and memos, obtained by The Globe and Mail after they were cited in a legal case currently under way in the High Court of Justice in London, show that Acacia executives were worried about the company’s risk exposure because the payments could create the appearance of “undue influence” over Tanzanian public servants. One internal memo cautioned that the task force was a powerful body and any changes to the payments should be carefully managed “for political as well as operational reasons.”
Acacia’s payments, which began in 2008, were funnelled to as many as 60 officials on the task force by 2015, the e-mails say. They included per-diem payments that were often much larger than standard per diems under Tanzanian government guidelines. The payments also covered other expenses by the officials, including car hire and fuel.
The payments were halted in November, 2015.
Barrick, which owned about 64 per cent of Acacia’s shares at the time, later bought the remainder of Acacia’s shares in 2019 and now runs the Tanzania mines itself.
The task force, which included intelligence agents, police and military officials, was paid from Tanzania’s national budget and was responsible for monitoring and investigating any threats to Tanzania’s critical infrastructure. The Acacia gold mines were deemed to be included in its mandate, leading to Acacia’s payments to the task force, although the company e-mails complained of a lack of transparency about the NTF’s activities. Acacia made weekly payments to three bank accounts from which the task force members drew their allowances, the e-mails show.
Violence around the gold mines, especially the North Mara mine, has been an issue for Barrick for more than a decade. Scores of villagers have reportedly been killed after entering the North Mara site in search of waste rock from which gold can be extracted. In the London court case, 10 villagers are seeking damages for alleged abuse by police and security guards leading to deaths or injuries at North Mara and its surrounding villages from 2014 to 2019.
The Globe has been documenting
police-related deaths at North Mara since 2011. Barrick has described the violence as a “legacy” issue that it has now resolved. But human-rights groups, including the British-based group Rights and Accountability in Development, have said that dozens of police shootings and assaults have continued since Barrick’s takeover in 2019, with at least six incidents causing deaths.
Nick Rowell, who was Acacia’s chief compliance officer at the time, said in an e-mail to colleagues in September, 2015, that the “government support payments” posed a risk to the company and “no longer comply with our anti-corruption policies.”
In an earlier e-mail that month, he cast doubt on the legitimacy of two NTF internal units that were receiving payments from Acacia. “Payments to the so called armed robbery unit, and the so called underground unit, should – from a purely anti-corruption compliance perspective – be suspended immediately,” he said.
Another senior executive, Peter Geleta, said in a separate e-mail that “a few of us” had been complaining about the payments for 18 months “and it is clear to me that our own people are protecting this domain.” The payment system, he said, “places the company under huge reputational risk.”
Several months earlier,
a memo to Acacia management by chief security adviser A.D. Firth had raised concerns about “the inference of undue influence” and “liability for the actions of the NTF” as a result of the payments. It called for a comprehensive review of the payments.
“The NTF is an important and powerful agency with links to the highest level of Tanzanian government,” the memo said. “It has supported Acacia’s interests well for some considerable time and any changes to the relationship must be very carefully managed for political as well as operational reasons.”
The memo said the NTF’s operations and investigations have been useful to Acacia, but it also noted that these activities could be considered part of the NTF’s national duties, for which it was already being paid by the government.
Acacia’s payments to the NTF had “grown considerably since 2008″ and were not listed in Acacia’s annual core security budget, the memo noted.
Barrick did not respond to questions from The Globe about the internal e-mails and memos. Kathy du Plessis, a Barrick spokesperson, said Acacia had an independent board and management team until Barrick privatized it in 2019.
Acacia and Barrick have never exercised any control over the Tanzanian NTF or police, and the NTF was not involved in any of the incidents alleged by the claimants in the London court case, she told The Globe.
“We are confident that the allegations that have been made in the London court case are without merit, and look forward to having the opportunity for the London courts to finally adjudicate this matter and put it to rest,” she said.
In the legal proceedings in London, a lawyer for the Tanzanian claimants argued that Acacia’s payments to both the NTF and the civilian police showed that the company had an unusually close relationship with the police and that its payments had secured influence over them. But a lawyer for Barrick said the NTF payments were a tangential issue.
In their statement of claim, lawyers for the Tanzanian claimants said the company regularly made payments to the NTF “without any sufficient evidence that they related to services rendered.” The payments ended when the company recognized that they risked violating the company’s “anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies and its legal obligations,” the statement of claim said.
Barrick, in its statement of defence, said the payments to the NTF were “entirely proper” and the task force “provided important policing services which helped to prevent serious crime.” It said the payments ended in November, 2015, but it denied that they were ended because they risked non-compliance with Acacia’s anti-corruption policies. “The payments ceased due to economic circumstances,” it said.