Three days after a prominent cabinet minister, Andrew Chenge, resigned following allegations that he had stashed away $1-million in an offshore account, political analysts predicted that more resignations among top government officials in Tanzania would follow.
Reliable information made available this week indicated that at least one cabinet minister and several other top public servants could follow Chenge's path if the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) declares they are also under investigation for their role in the procurement of radar systems from British Aerospace Sytems (BAE), a UK aircraft and defence systems manufacturer.
Chenge, formerly the longest-serving attorney general, is the fourth minister to have resigned in the past two months. The spate of resignations follows President Jakaya Kikwete's dissolution of the entire cabinet prompted by the resignation in February of then prime minister Edward Lowassa and two ministers for being implicated in separate scandals surrounding the irregular awarding of a multibillion-shilling tender in 2006 to generate emergency electricity.
The two ministers who were forced to resign with Lowassa were Nazir Karamagi, the minister for energy and minerals, and his deputy minister, Ibrahim Msabaha.
The embattled Chenge made headlines last week after the British Guardian newspaper reported on the SFO's investigation into his involvement in the nearly $48-million procurement *1 of a radar from BAE Systems through "a middleman", who has since fled the country. Chenge, who was in China with Kikwete when the news broke, allegedly received a $12-million commission for his role in brokering the deal *2.
Chenge shocked Tanzania when he told the press on his return from China that his offshore bank account *3 in the island of Jersey had a balance of a "few cents", which was not earned through his role in the radar deal.
"I was only involved in the minor aspects of the radar deal, which was worked on by other ministries before being approved by the cabinet of previous president, Mr [Benjamin] Mkapa," he said.
Opposition political leaders have already demanded that the office of the Public Leadership Ethics Commission give them access to wealth declaration forms for at least 11 high-ranked government officials, including Chenge.
The ethics commissioner, retired Judge Steven Ihema, received an application letter from opposition leaders demanding to see the wealth declaration forms, but he turned down the request, saying they had not followed the proper procedure for lodging complaints.
The director of communications at State House, Salva Rweyemamu, confirmed on Monday night that Chenge tendered his resignation to President Kikwete, who accepted the minister's decision to step down.
"The president's view is that Honourable Chenge's decision to resign is the right decision in the prevailing circumstances," said Rweyemamu. -- © CAJ News