KAGODA Agriculture Limited signed a secret document with the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to facilitate the illegal payment of more than $30.8m (approx. 40bn/-) from the external payment arrears (EPA) account, it has been revealed.
According to latest THISDAY findings, the secret document exposes the real beneficiary of the funds embezzled from the key BoT forex account during 2005/06.
It has been widely reported that two virtually unknown individuals - John Kyomuhendo and Francis William were used by at least two prominent local business tycoons as fronts to camouflage their (tycoons) real involvement in Kagoda.
Kyomuhendo, whose name was used for documentation purposes as 'director' of Kagoda, is understood to have given power of attorney to one of the business tycoons immediately after the central bank transferred the funds to the company's accounts.
This tycoon, believed to have actually employed Kyomuhendo in one of his well-known companies, quickly withdrew the funds from Kagoda's bank accounts and used an elaborate money-laundering scheme provided by an equally well-known business partner to hide the monies elsewhere.
Officials close to the EPA scandal investigation led by Attorney General Johnson Mwanyika now say a written contract was prepared by the then BoT governor Dr Daudi Ballali (now deceased) as an ''insurance policy'' should anything go wrong after the huge payment was made to Kagoda.
''When Ballali was given instructions from the highest levels of government to approve the dubious payment to Kagoda, he decided that there should be some sort of written understanding between the central bank and the real beneficiary of the funds paid to Kagoda,'' said a well-placed source familiar with the scandal.
The source added: ''While Ballali certainly cannot be absolved from blame, there were powerful people in government who ordered him to authorise the payments to Kagoda.''
Insiders say several other documents that are yet to be made public name senior officials in the third phase government of ex-president Benjamin Mkapa who ''forced Ballali to okay the payment of more than 40bn/- to Kagoda.''
Imani David Mwakosya, who was the Head of Bilateral and Commercial Debt (HBCD) at the BoT at the time of the 133bn/- EPA scandal, is said to be one of ''only a few people aware or in possession of the secret document between the BoT and Kagoda.''
Mwakosya, who is also one of only two suspects still being held in remand prison in the ongoing EPA scandal prosecutions, is reported to hold ''valuable secrets'' related to the scandal.
And auditors who uncovered the scandal identified Mwakosya as the person ''primarily responsible for EPA account administration.''
Prosecutors have so far filed criminal charges against a total of 20 people at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam in connection with the EPA scam.
Eighteen of the accused persons have been released on bail. They include Mwakosya's former boss at the central bank, Ms Esther Komu, who was the deputy director of the BoT Debt Department (DDDD) which falls under the directorate of economic policy.
The prosecution team has already announced that Peter Noni, who served as BoT Director of Economic Policy, is among the many witnesses it will call to the stand to testify in the upcoming trial hearings.
After serving as director of economic policy, Noni was appointed to the post of BoT Director of Strategy Planning and Performance Review.
Other senior BoT officials scheduled to appear in court as prosecution witnesses have been named as Tamali Mwakilema, who has also served as deputy director of the BoT debt management department, Emmanuel Boaz, Elisa Isanja, Rashid Mwanga, Samwel Mark, Athumani Mtengeli, and Stela Chaula.
The Assistant Registrar of the Business Registration and Licensing Authority (BRELA), Andrew Mkapa, and senior officials from the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) have also been listed as prosecution witnesses in the EPA trials.
