Public college feels graft punch

Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu

 The government has suspended three top officials of the Tanzania Public Service College (TPSC) over separate cases of alleged abuse of office, including the loss of 1 billion/- in dubious circumstances.

The officials include the TPSC principal and chief executive officer, Said Nassor, TPSC-Tabora Campus director Silvanus Ngata, and the TPSC acting director of finance and administration, Joseph Mbwilo.

The Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance), Angela Kairuki, told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that Mbwilo was on the spot after it was found that 1bn/- collected as TPSC students fees in 2013 had not been properly accounted for. 

Ngata, meanwhile, is alleged to have overseen the inflation of construction costs for a two-storey building in Mtwara while he was serving as director at the TPSC-Mtwara Campus.

Principal Nassor has been suspended for failing to take proper disciplinary action against the two officials. According to minister Kariuki, after the Mtwara building scandal the only action Nassor took against Ngata was to transfer him to Tabora.

“It is surprising that he (Nassor) decided not to take any other ethically-acceptable punitive measures against both officials,” Kairuki said.

She asserted that the TPSC principal’s negligent leadership and failure to enforce ethical practices at all TPSC campuses across the country had led to generally lax working attitudes among officials in those campuses.

According to Kairuki, the deterioration of ethics has become a big problem in most public offices across the country; a problem that she said the fifth phase government is committed to overcome while leaving no stone unturned.

A number of cabinet ministers have recently began mirroring the kind of hard-line stance already shown by President Magufuli in suspending senior public officials on suspicions of involvement in the embezzlement of public funds

Just a week ago, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu, suspended four top officials of the state-run Medical Stores Department (MSD) – including the chief executive officer - over a 1.5bn/- procurement-related shortfall.

And earlier this month, transport minister Prof Makame Mbarawa also suspended the Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) finance manager Stephen Kasubi over a 715 million/-loss incurred by the national carrier.

The Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) also recently felt the weight of the government’s anti-corruption axe after the board’s chief executive was fired by education minister Prof Joyce Ndalichako along with and three other senior officials over a suspected 3.2bn/- funds embezzlement scam.