By George Marat, THE GUARDIAN, TANZANIA
12th August 2012
Four
well placed local government officials in Musoma Rural district may
face arraignment in court over misuse of farm inputs vouchers whose
total worth reaches sh 370million.
The four were members of a committee to
distribute the vouchers include Musoma Rural MP Nimrod Mkono
(CCM),former district commissioner Geofrey Ngatuni, district council
chairman Magina Magesa and former district executive director Karaine
ole Kunei who at present is Ngorongoro district director.
All the same the district chairman, Magina
Magesa, told this newspaper that the secretary of the voucher
distribution committee who is also the district director has not at any
one time invited him or the MP as regular members.
He said instead of asking them to
participate as regular members the director kept giving excuses for not
inviting them, which implies that himself and the MP are not part of the
queries being raised on the vouchers.
A session of the district council raised
the matter as members refused to receive a report on reception and
distribution of the vouchers after affirming that no farm inputs had
ever been delivered to farmers in the district in the 2011/2012 farming
season.
The meeting was held under its chairman
Magina Magesa, and unanimously refused the report, and instead formed a
six man probe committee to give light on the issue.
Talking before the committee was formed,
councilors from both sides of the political divide affirmed that not one
village in the district received the said inputs, contrary to what the
report says, “even indicating what the purchase of inputs had cost the
government.”
“I obtained reports of delivery of
subsidized input vouchers from the Regional Commissioner that our
district had been provided with vouchers worth sh370million but as a
matter of fact no such voucher was ever brought to my ward,” Tegeruka
councilor Alpha Mordekai declared.
“For that reason I join my colleagues to
form a probe team on these theft suspicions and those seen to be tainted
be taken to court,” he emphasized.
Mara RC John Tupa recently said that some
districts had misused subsidized inputs vouchers with part of the inputs
being sold outside the country, while in some cases secondary school
pupils had been made to sign on voucher pretending to be farmers.
Further disagreements were being heard as
councilors rifted over plans to divide the district into two, the second
time the issue flares up, having brought members of the finance and
planning committee close to blows at midweek.
The issue was returned to a meeting of the
ruling party and then brought back to the council, on the basis of a
preliminary decision to divide Musoma Rural district so that one of the
two districts shall be Butiama.
One reason for dispute is that Butiama is
located far away from certain wards, which are closer to Musoma but
shall be located in Butiama district once the plan is carried out.
After some of the councilors stormed out
of the meeting, those remaining decided that the district be divided in
two, where each district shall have 17 wards. One district shall be
Nyanja whose head offices should be built at Kwikonero in Suguti ward.
Those proposals shall now be presented before the Regional Consultative
Council (RCC) for further deliberations, councilors noted.
SOURCE:
GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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