Former TCAA official wins appeal against state

Written by FAUSTINE KAPAMA

THE state has admitted that a High Court Judge committed a mistake in recording part of proceedings in a case of a former official with the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), Joseph Ngiloi, who is challenging inadequate damages for his premature retirement.

Ngiloi, who was senior airworthiness surveyor grade one before his controversial retirement, has lodged an appeal, asking the Appellate Court to quash the decision of August 13, 2008, given by the then High Court Judge, William Mandia, who had awarded him 50mil/- damages alone instead of 1.092bn/-he had demanded.

The appeal was set for hearing before Justices Steven Bwana, Sauda Mjasiri and Themistocles Kaijage yesterday. But the matter was adjourned to another date to be set later, because one member of the panel could not sit on it as he had ever presided over the case when he was a judge at the High Court.

Judge Mandia had declared the retirement by Mr Ngiloi null and void because the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the then Ministry of Communication and Transport had no powers to terminate him as he was a presidential appointtee. The judge declined to award more damages because Ngiloi had reached retirement age.

But in his appeal briefs filed before the Court of Appeal to oppose the appeal lodged by Mr Ngiloi, Principal State Attorney Pius Mboya stated that the trial judge had made a mistake on the issue of age.

"We submit that when recording the appellant's age, the trial judge mistakenly inserted the age of 60 years along with the age of 53," reads part of the appeal briefs.

According to the submissions, in the appellant's testimony given on September 20, 2005, he informed the court that he was 53 years old. "Our Principal State Attorney who was representing the government recorded the appellant's age as 53," Mboya stated in the appeal briefs.

However, he stated, the age of the appellant was not in controversy at the trial court as it was not included in the pleadings of either party, hence was not taken into consideration in determining the award of damages.

Mr Ngiloi was appointed by the president on June 1, 1987 to the post of Senior Airworthiness Surveyor Grade One in the Directorate of Civil Aviation with the then Ministry of Communication and Transport. Following satisfactory performance, the president confirmed him on January 21, 1992. 

He later underwent training on Aircraft Engineering in India, Europe, United States, Holland and Ethiopia and was the most trained in the field. Surprisingly, on June 29, 1999, he was unlawfully and prematurely retired purportedly in public interest. 

According to him, such retirement was flawed as it disregarded the principle of first in, last out, lacked transparency, openness and competitiveness and that the government did not take into consideration that he was the most qualified engineer within the authority.

Source: Daily News (24/10/2012): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/10811-former-official-wins-appeal-against-state