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Opposition calls for Ballali`s repatriation
2008-01-19 09:03:01
By Felister Peter
A coalition of four opposition political parties has called on the government to bring back to the country former Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor Daudi Ballali so as to speed up investigations and for his own security.
A technical committee of the coalition formed by the country’s main opposition parties—the Civic United Front (CUF), Tanzania Labour Party (TLP), Chadema and NCCR-Mageuzi—made the call at a joint press conference held yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
The coalition wants President Jakaya Kikwete to declare exactly where Ballali is, the hospital he is admitted to and what he is suffering from.
A member of the committee, Benedict Mutungirehi of TLP said Ballali’s presence would help expose more people who were involved in the BoT scandal.
He expressed fears that the sacked central bank chief might also be murdered by some dishonest leaders implicated in the scandal or be devastated by ongoing investigations.
Mutungirehi said that President Kikwete had to sack the former Finance Minister Basil Mramba and treasury’s Permanent Secretary Gray Mgonja, claiming that they were directly involved in okaying some of the EPA transactions.
He said the appointment of Treasury Permanent Secretary Gray Mgonja to the new BoT Board would bring no impact because he was in the previous team and had done nothing substantial.
He said the President`s move to sack Ballali alone was insufficient, due to the fact that behind Ballali was a long list of other culprits, including directors of implicated companies.
Mutungirehi advised the law enforcers to immediately put under surveillance all suspects, warning that if left free for a long time, they might interfere with the investigations and distort the whole move.
He said the government should make available to the public the BoT audit reports on EPA, in line with what the President had promised Tanzanians, cautioning that non-disclosure might create a feeling that the government was trying to hide something.
Sam Ruhuza, a technical committee member from the NCCR-Mageuzi, advised President Kikwete to make a complete overhaul of the entire central bank management, if he really wanted smooth investigations into the EPA scandal.
Another coalition`s technical committee member, Benson Kigaila claimed that the government knew exactly where Ballali was, saying that it was ``hard to understand`` because when he left the country for the purported treatment, he was still a government employee.
Kigaila said the amount of money misappropriated at the BoT was sufficient to build 10,000 new secondary schools, and almost each village could have got one.
President Kikwete fired the former central bank chief Daudi Ballali a fortnight ago, after the BoT management under his leadership occasioned multi-billion loses through dubious payments and dealing with phony companies in 2005.
Ballali`s deputy, Prof Benno Ndulu, was appointed to replace him.
Kikwete also directed the Attorney General, Inspector General of Police and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau to investigate all companies and individuals who were involved in the shoddy deals and take appropriate action in line with the laws of the land.
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