Court: Mramba denies all charges

DAILY NEWS Reporter

THE first defendant in a case of abuse of power, embezzlement and occasioning the loss of 11.7bn/-, Mr Basil Mramba, on Wednesday denied all charges against him at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates' Court.

Mr Mramba, former finance minister is charged together with former minister for energy and minerals, Mr Daniel Yona and former Treasury permanent secretary, Mr Gray Mgonja are charged for illegally granting tax exemption to Ms Alex Stewart, which won a tender as a mineral auditor and causing losses to the government.

Led by his advocate Mr Hubert Nyange, Mr Mramba said he appeared as first witness in the case but told the court that six other witnesses who are representatives of Ms Alex Stuart will also appear before the court to testify in his defence.

Other witnesses include the former Attorney General Mr Andrew Chenge, the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Public Accounts (PAC), Mr John Cheyo or his representative and a tax expert, Mr Florian Musigara.

Mr Mramba alleged that he was not involved in any way in the process of scouting for the services of Ms Stewart and bringing them into the country, but only acted on directives from former President Benjamin Mkapa.

He said the case was brought before the court following complaints by Members of Parliament who aired their views that the country was not benefiting as it should from mineral resources prompting for the appointment of an auditor. 

"BoT worked on President Mkapa's directive that the money, whether from the Treasury or central bank or both should be paid to the consultant and my duty was just to pay," he said.  The case is under Resident Magistrates John Utamwa, Saul Kinemela and Sam Rumanyika and the court took a brief recess before Mr Mramba continued with his defence.

Source: Daily News (23/08/2012): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/8819-mramba-denies-all-charges