House orders government to probe Stolen Swiss billions

Parliament yesterday tasked the government to conduct thorough investigation to establish the names of Tanzanian personalities holding offshore bank accounts and the amounts held. The move comes amid news that Britain's biggest bank, HSBC is at the centre of a major financial scandal after it opened offshore accounts in Jersey for serious criminals living in United Kingdom (read separate story on page 2).

However, it's not clear whether the government would marshal enough resources and expertise to investigate sophisticated money laundering involving major international banks. It is understood that to date, Tanzanian authority have failed to establish where the ‘looted billions' from Central Bank of Tanzania were banked -- early seven years since the Deep Green and Trinexy (Pty) scam rocked the nation.

In Kenya, when the country wanted to track down the stolen billions, which were looted by former President Daniel Arap Moi and his allies, it hired Kroll international, a global private investigative firm based in London, which finally did an effective job. Over the past 40 years, Kroll has evolved from a small investigative consultancy to an international technology-enabled intelligence and information management company.

The major objective of the investigation should be to establish if the opening of the accounts followed proper procedures, and whether the money so stashed accrued legally. The government agreed to carry out the assignment and report back to the parliament in April following fierce debate over a private motion tabled by Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe late Thursday evening in the august House.

It was Attorney-General Frederick Werema, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs) William Lukuvi who prevailed over mounting rancour within the House to let the government-through its relevant state organs-deal with matter. The three top government officials had to come up with a proposal before it was finally endorsed by the House-even though Zitto in his orginal motion wanted the House to form a Select Committee to investigate individuals claimed to have stashed yet unspecified ‘billions of shillings' in offshore accounts.

One of the terms of reference requires the government to report back to Parliament in April next year when, if MPs aren't satisfied with the findings, then a Select Committee would be formed to carry out the task. In carrying out the investigation, the government has agreed to use private investigators and other diplomatic means to achieve the desired results. The use of private investigators was proposed by Zitto who said Kenya, France and Senegal succeeded to bring back their illegally spirited wealth through such assistance.

AG Werema in his remarks also told the House that the government would next year bring to Parliament what he described as a Financial Transaction Bill to enact a law that would clearly spell out the amount in tax that all individuals keeping their money abroad would be required to pay. How and where individuals raised such money are key questions before the government over the next six months. Deals surrounding the procurement of military hardware and energy and minerals are also some of the major areas from which public leaders and businessmen generated billions of shillings before stashing it abroad, it has been revealed.

According to the document that Kigoma North (Chadema) MP Kabwe Zuberi Zitto used when tabling his private motion in Parliament on Thursday evening, there was evidence that some top government officials and businessmen benefited a lot from such deals.
Now Zitto says he has all the documents to support his claims and that he would adduce them to the select committee that Parliament may form. The outspoken opposition MP told an attentive House that the money now amounting to Sh 13 trillion had been stashed away in foreign accounts abroad including New Jersey Island, Mauritius , Cayman Islands and Switzerland .

Zitto cited the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report of 2008 which stated that a total of US $8 billion-enough to offset the public debt by 80 per cent-had been stashed abroad between 1970 and 2008. To date, it remains unknown exactly how much money has been spirited away because such countries do not normally disclose bank the financial details of their customers as opposed to Switzerland that has such arrangement.

The National Debt as of June this year stood at US $10 billion. In 2012/2013 financial year Parliament endorsed Sh 1.9 trillion just to service the national debt. Zitto's document provides further that Germany and the United States managed to buy CDs from former Swiss bank officials before they learnt that there were some individuals who had stashed money away into Swiss banks in order to evade tax. That event prompted Germany to enter into a special agreement with the Swiss government to facilitate an exchange of financial details of individuals with accounts in Switzerland for tax remittance purposes.

Recently, a newspaper in Greece published a list of Greek individuals, including top government officials and businesspeople who had ‘hidden' money in Switzerland. The names were originally disclosed by Former French Finance Minister Christine Largade to the Greek government but Greece did not work on the list. Today, Ms Largade is the World Bank (WB) chief. In June this year the National Bank of Switzerland released information about various people in the world holding bank accounts in which it was revealed that Tanzanian individuals had stashed away a total of US $196million ( Sh 314 billion ).

However, according to the latest information availed to Zitto on Thursday by his whistle blowers, the amount announced by the National Bank of Switzerland on June is 20 times the exact figure. Citing an example, Zitto said UBS has 240 officials dealing with Tanzanian individuals transacting with the bank. Each UBS official deals with a Tanzanian individual with not less than US $10million.

Sources of money stashed abroad

The billions of shillings hidden abroad, according to Zitto, are mostly proceeds of crime. He said part of the money was a result of corruption while some accrued from tax evasion. He explained that between 2003 and 2005 Tanzania was engulfed with corruption after the Bank of Tanzania paid a total of Sh 155 billion to Nedbank Bank of South Africa as payment for the debt that the government had guaranteed to enable Meremeta Company carry out gold extraction activities.

That money was said to be fifteen times the money for which it was put up as a loan guarantee. However, Zitto said investigation showed 70 per cent of money borrowed was diverted to Switzerland banks via Mauritius . Zitto said the Meremeta Company that was later transformed into TanGold, was established as a conduit for siphoning public money by a ‘most top' government official – but fell short of revealing the identity of such official. Other projects through which billions of money was siphoned include Buhemba Gold Mine that was claimed to belong to the Ministry of Defence and National Service.

Ophir Energy, an oil exploration company, has also been mentioned as a firm that dished out hefty bribes to government officials so that it could be awarded three oil exploration blocks.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

I surrender one name: Chenge

Msahau kabisa kupata hiyo orodha ya wahalifu na wezi wa pesa za WATZ na wala rushwa kubwa kubwa hapa BONGO, viongozi wa CCM wanawajua watu hao mapema kabla hata ya kutangazwa kwa hoja pale mjengoni lakini hawako na hawatakuwa tayari kuwa expose kwa 7bu ni wenzao.

Mnakumbuka Rais JK alisema anayo orodha ya wala rushwa, je mmewahi ona akiwachukulia hatua hata za kuwakamata na kuwaweka mahabusu ili kuwashikisha adabu au kuwaweka benchi?

Mh. Rais alisema ana orodha ya drug dealers ya kulevya, nini kinaendelea mmeona wakikamatwa?--ndiyo maana nasema -msahau kuona ukweli--CHENGE HANA HATIA ILA CHENGI YA RADAR TUMEDAI NA TUMEPOKEA CHENGI, waliohusika hawana hatia, this is happening only in Tanzania. Rais kasema CHENGE hana tuhuma za kujibu therefore hana hatia ila Chengi ya radar tumepokea

:target:naona mmesahau mambo ya richmond, hii ni sinema nyingine imeanza, see you ukumbini :target:

......mwisho wa siku utasikia.... Baada ya serikali kufanya uchunguzi wa kina, haikubaini kiasi chochote cha pesa zilizodaiwa kufichwa nje ya nchi. Zilikuwa ni fitna tu za siasa hivyo Zito awe makini anapoleta jambo zito kama hili mbele ya umma hasa kupitia chombo muhimu kama bunge kwani anaweza kusababisha mtafaruku, kuvunja amani na kuleta mgawanyiko...... Ndo hivyo ukipewa kisu hata wewe huwezi kujichoma! Hii ndo tanzania kama hutaki hifadhi hii post yangu tukumbushane ripoti ikitoka