During Sullivan Summit opening on 2 June 2008 in Arusha, Nigerian ex-president Obasanjo addressed this issue, encouraging governments to bring to law all leaders who have been involved in corrupt deals where evidence is.
Like a poorly organized play scene, the spokesperson of Kiwira Coal Mine--the center of the Mkapa bad record--recently issued a statement that ANBEN had withdrawn from TanPower partnership. This statement comes several weeks after the dung caught the fan that ANBEN, a business owned by Mkapa and wife registered while Mkapa was a sitting president.
Getting all this retirement package, yet trying to lump more weight on the backs of taxpayers through power purchase agreement (yet another of several in force today) amounts to cruelty.
Here it goes:
A retirement benefits package to dream of: Why Mkapa didn’t have to do business at Ikulu:
Dar es Salaam
Friday, May 30 2008
FORMER President Benjamin Mkapa is already guaranteed a comfortable life after retirement, courtesy of taxpayers’ money, according to legislation that he himself assented to while at State House.
The current Political Service Retirement Benefits Act, passed by the National Assembly in 2000, spells out a generous package of retirement perks for the former president, including an annual pension granted monthly of a sum equal to 80 per cent of the salary of incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete.
On top of that, Mkapa also now gets a monthly maintenance allowance also equal to 80 per cent of Kikwete’s current salary.
Furthermore, after leaving public office, he was entitled to receive a gratuity of a sum equal to 50 per cent of the total sum received by himself as salaries during his entire ten-year tenure as head of state from 1995.
Mkapa also received a winding-up allowance of a sum equal to the amount that would be received as salary in 24 months by incumbent President Kikwete.
Apart from this financial windfall, the legislation also allows the ex-president to continue using diplomatic passports for himself and his wife, plus the use of the VIP lounge at all airports.
He was also given a health insurance policy that covers medical treatment within Tanzania, plus the services of two motor vehicles to be provided by the government, and two drivers.
Also included in Mkapa’s handsome retirement benefits package is a fully-furnished house of not less than four bedrooms, two of which shall be self-contained, with a furnished office and servants’ quarters.
The specific legislation also guarantees ’’all necessary security and other protection services to himself and his immediate family.’’
Courtesy of taxpayers’ money, the former president also gets one of each of the following: Personal assistant, personal secretary, office attendant, personal cook, laundry man, domestic servant, and gardener.
And if he is requested to travel outside Tanzania on official (Kikwete) government business, only first class travel is appropriate for Mkapa, with the state also obliged to foot travel expenses for his spouse and two assistants.
Overall, the perks listed in the legislation in question basically ensured that the ex-president would be well taken care of by the state for the rest of his life, after retirement in 2005.
But still, Mkapa stands accused of aggressively seeking to acquire even more personal wealth during his tenure as president, regardless of the huge pension cheque he knew he would receive after leaving public office.
Records show that the legislation in question was assented hardly a year after Mkapa and former first lady Anna Mkapa started their own private business company, ANBEM Limited, and operated it from within the Ikulu premises.
ANBEM Ltd dealings included obtaining loans totalling 750m/- from the National Bank of Commerce (NBC) and CRDB Bank, some of this money reportedly being used to buy a two-storey building in Dar es Salaam’s upmarket Sea View area, which has now been rented to Bank (M) Tanzania Limited.
It has also been established that Mkapa, while still president, joined forces in 2004 with his then energy and minerals minister, Daniel Yona, to form another private company, Tanpower Resources Limited, with various members of their immediate families.
Both Mkapa and Yona were then heavily involved in the privatization of the formerly state-owned Kiwira coal mine in Mbeya Region, ensuring that this lucrative national asset was cheaply sold to the Tanpower Resources company in 2005.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) Party, Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, has joined the chorus of strong public criticism against Mkapa.
Speaking at a meeting of the Editors’ Forum in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Lipumba described Mkapa as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
He charged that Mkapa who retired in 2005 was not the same man as the ’Mr Clean’ who entered State House for the first time in 1995.
The CUF leader said it was somewhat surprising to see Mkapa apparently grieving deeply the death of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, in 1999 - the same year that he started his own private company at State House.
’’It would seem that immediately after Mwalimu’s death, Mkapa began abusing public office by conducting his private business affairs at State House,’’ said Lipumba.
He cited apparently corruption-tainted deals under the Mkapa administration as including the 70bn/- military radar transaction, and equally dubious purchases of military vehicles, helicopters and the presidential jet - all done through controversial middleman Shailesh Vithlani.
Various political commentators have roundly dismissed Mkapa’s weekend attempt to respond for the first time to the widespread allegations of corruption and abuse of office that have hounded him for a full year now, with the general consensus being that he failed completely to address the real issues at hand.
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