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Millions allegedly misappropriated by scouts officials
2006-01-20 08:38:45
By Guardian Investigative Reporter
Besieged top officials at the National Scouts Association are once again in the limelight , and this time around, accused of allegedly misappropriating a whooping 80m/- meant for a national project.
The money, a donation from IOGT-NTO, a Swedish based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) was meant to fund the implementation of the Drug Demand Reduction and Prevention Project.
This comes on the heels of the revelation of a multimillion scam, involving an alleged sale of international invitations extended to TSA members, from Europe, USA and Asia.
The officials are said to have been selling the invitations to young men from well-to-do families as a gateway to foreign lands.
Impeccable sources intimated to The Guardian that the 80m/- meant for the project cannot be accounted for.
’The fund, among other things, was supposed to be used for the development and production of training materials.
About 6m/- was allocated for publication of Drug Prevention Handbook. However, the book, which was published, is of poor quality compared to the amount of money allegedly set aside for the purpose,’ lamented the Project Co-ordinator, Centre for Substance Abuse Prevention, Elias Mutani.
Centre for Substance Abuse Prevention, is an NGO, operating and representing IOGT-NTO movement in Tanzania. IOGT-NTO is therefore the sponsor of the Drug Demand Reduction Project.
’A quick review of the version of the booklet indicates it is a word-to-word translation of the original English vision printed in Kenya.
There are a lot of typing errors, grammatical mistakes, unclear concepts and lack of consistence.
This shows clearly that the translation was a one-man job,’ he further claimed.
Mutani, was emphatic, that his centre had already written to TSA to register its dissatisfaction with how the 6m/-, meant for publishing the Drug Prevention Handbook was spent.
Another source who requested to remain anonymous claimed the officials at TSA spent 7m/- on alleged lease of a minibus.
The lease was also unprocedurally procured, he said.
’There was no tendering for the transport service for the project. One of the officials awarded himself the 7m/- transport tender.
However, there was a possibility of purchasing a car which, would serve the purpose and remain the property of the association,’ said the source.
Our sources, further illuminated that, the officials also compelled some district scouts commissioners to sign for payments of 3.5m/- while they only received 2.5m/-.
’There are 10 districts in the country which, were selected for Patrol Leader Training.
Each district was supposed to receive 3.5m/- in order to conduct Peer Education Training for 60 patrol leaders.
However, the officials gave out, only 2.5m/- to each district but demanded that the district leaders sign for 3.5m/.
The difference, they said, was meant for use at the association’s headquarters,’ the source said.
However, when contacted, the Chief Commissioner of Scouts, Gosbert Njunwa declined to comment, saying he was waiting for an audit report before giving his side of the story.
’Auditors are still auditing my project.
I’m looking forward to the completion of the audit exercise in a week’s time. When I receive their report I will be able to give you my comments on the allegations,’ said Njunwa.
On January 10, 2006, this paper authoritatively unearthed a multimillion scam involving top TSA officials involved in the sale of international invitations from abroad meant for its members, to young men and women who wished to go overseas in search of greener pastures.
However, when asked for comment, the Executive Commissioner of Scouts Alipherio Nchimbi denied the involvement of the two officials implicated in the alleged deal.
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