Death of Somaiya leaves many questions on legacy
What you need to know:
- Born on October 8, 1968, Mr Somaiya was the founder of Shivacom Tanzania Limited, which was incorporated in the year 2000
Dar es Salaam. A Tanzanian businessman, Tanil Somaiya, who died on Wednesday, may have lived a silent life during the past 10 years or so but available data show that his business life was shrouded in a number of controversies.
From the sale of used Sh500 recharge vouchers to a telecommunication firm and up to mega scandals like the military radar and presidential jet deals, Mr Somaiya had his hand in.
Born on October 8, 1968, Mr Somaiya was the founder of Shivacom Tanzania Limited, which was incorporated in 2000.
When his company won a tender to supply Sh500 recharge vouchers over 10 years ago, many might not have sensed how big the business was and the tricks associated with the deal.
It was until some years later that the Parliament’s Industry and Trade Committee investigated his company for its alleged sale to Vodacom of recharge vouchers that had been already used.
Though little is known of the investigation outcomes, what remains in the public domain is the fact that the Tanzania Revenue Authority and Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority were on record as having said that the country lost billions of uncollected revenue through that deal.
Mr Somaiya’s Shivacom Group of Companies specialises in investing in real estate, distribution of Motorola radios and it is also a Grade 1 Contractor with a speciality in automobile, and security systems software.
Though not much is known about the private life of the publicity shy tycoon, what is known is that he was at one time being investigated over his role in some military deals, including the over $40 million military radar sale by a UK firm to Tanzania during the era of former President Benjamin Mkapa.
It is also on record that he played a role in the purchase of the Gulfstream Presidential jet in 2002.
In the very long running Air Traffic Control System (Radar) case, Mr Somaiya found himself in bad books of the UK’s Senior Fraud Office (SFO) in January 2007 when Britain’s BAE Systems finally accepted responsibility in several corruption cases around the world including the one in Tanzania.
It agreed to pay penalties in the US and the UK totalling several hundred million dollars to settle the cases against it.
SFO named Mr Somaiya and other prominent businessmen as well as top government officials as key suspects.
Under the deal, BAE will pay $400m (£255m) in the US and $47m (£30m) in the UK, the latter being a penalty for over-pricing the cost of the air traffic control system it sold to Tanzania several years ago.
SFO investigators established that BAE Systems had secretly paid a $12 million commission into the Swiss bank account of Sailesh Vithlani who was alleged to have been the ‘middleman’.
According to details from the SFO’s investigation, the actual price of the military radar system sold to Tanzania was far less than the money paid by the government of Tanzania which had to borrow from Barclays Bank to fund the purchase.
It was after BAE Systems agreed to have erred in the deal that it was agreed that Tanzania was to get a refund of some $28 million. The SFO had earlier indicated that some of the cash would become ‘an ex gratia payment for the benefit of the people of Tanzania’.
However, BAE insisted that it would not pay the money to the government but that it would be given instead to local charities dealing with humanitarian aid in Tanzania.
