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Team on Richmond meets Tanesco chief
2007-11-28 09:02:16
By Pastory Nguvu
The parliamentary select committee formed early this month to study circumstances that led the Government into awarding Richmond Development Corporation a tender to emergency generate power has interrogated Tanesco Managing Director Dr Idris Rashid on the matter.
The chairman of the committee, Kyela legislator Harrison Mwakyembe, told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they had received maximum cooperation from officials in the public institutions they have contacted since they went into business 12 days ago.
He cited Energy and Minerals ministry officials as having been especially cooperative and supportive.
`We got all the necessary documents we wanted from these institutions. Our task has been simple during all the 12 days we have been working and we hope that, with this cooperation, we will meet the December 15 deadline,` he said.
Dr Mwakyembe explained that some ordinary wananchi had also come forward to help the committee with helpful evidence and clues, adding that the committee had no intention of seeking further evidence outside Tanzania.
The Richmond saga resurfaced in Parliament early this month, with legislators demanding that a House select committee probe the circumstances that made the Government enter into a contract with the controversial power-generating firm that has since opted out.
The demand was met with a decision by House Speaker Samwel Sitta naming the Mwakyembe committee, whose other members include MPs Stella Manyanya, Mohammed Mnyaa and Lucas Seleli.
The committee has been detailed to investigate the facts behind Richmond and how the firm secured the contract with Tanesco as well as evaluate the contract itself.
Richmond was contracted to generate electricity when the country experienced acute power shortage after hydro-power dams went dry because of drought.
The firm was commissioned to generate 100 megawatts of electricity and connect it into the national grid at a cost of 172.9bn/-.
Power generation, after an initial postponement, was supposed to begin by February this year.
The deadline was once again extended to June, months after the power problem was over.
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