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Tanzania's parliament votes to dismiss ministers after graft report
Mizengo Pinda, Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, speaks during the Millennium Development Goals Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York, September 20, 2010. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Chip East
30/11/2014
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's parliament voted on Saturday to dismiss senior officials, including the attorney general, the energy minister and several other members of cabinet, after a report on corruption in the energy sector.
The report - requested by opposition lawmakers - said senior government officials fraudulently authorised the transfer of at least $122 million of public funds to a private company.
International donors said last month they will only pay outstanding pledges to what is one of Africa's biggest per capita aid recipients if the findings of the report were published and action taken.
Parliament's resolution called for the sacking of minister for energy and minerals, Sospeter Muhongo, the lands, housing and human settlement development minister, Anna Tibaijuka, attorney general Frederick Werema, and the permanent secretary in the energy and minerals ministry, Eliachim Maswi.
The resolution is binding, and President Jakaya Kikwete, who returned to Tanzania on Saturday after cancer surgery in the United States, has little choice but to fire the officials.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said on Saturday the government would implement the resolution.
All the government officials have denied wrongdoing.
Deputy technology minister, January Makamba, said Tanzania was going through tough times as a result of the delay to aid.
"If our currency can be destabilised by donors withholding support, we're not truly independent and must find a way to live without donors," Makamba said on Twitter.
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