Ekelege denies abuse of office charges

Dar es Salaam. A former director general with the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) yesterday told the court that he was not guilty of the offences he is charged with, because the decision to exempt administration fees for two foreign companies was reached by the authority’s management.

Testifying at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court, Mr Charles Ekelege, said that before approving anything concerning tax issues, he consulted the management which agreed that tax exemptions should be granted to the two companies which had earlier applied for the same.

Ekelege is accused of abusing his office and occasioning $42,543 (over Sh68 million) loss to the government when he waived50 per cent administrative fees for two companies, which he claimed was done in accordance with TBS financial regulations.

“They (companies) both wrote to the authority asking to be exempted from paying administration fee and gave various reasons which the management agreed to after holding discussions in its daily morning meeting,” said Ekelege.Testifying before Resident Magistrate Augustina Mmbando, Ekelege said that TBS signed a partnership with the companies, Jaffar Mohamed Ali garage based in Dubai and Total Automotive Services in Hong Kong to inspect the quality of vehicles imported.

“This can be seen in letters we replied the two companies...” he said.

as management we discussed their plea and agreed to it, we exempted them from paying 50 per cent of the fee,” he said while adding that the letter’s did not indicate the exact amount to be exempted.

It was also noted that the Dubai Company was exempted from paying the fee for the duration of six months from October 2007 to March 2008, “as a management member, I said the letter on March 28, 2008,” he said.

On the side of the Total Automotive Services, it was exempted for a period of nine months from December 15, 2008 to August 1, 2009, after they claimed to the Authority that cars exported to the country from Hong Kong are very few plus the company has purchased new machines which will work effectively in the inspection.

“They detailed that they will also reduce the inspection fee from $150 to $100 per inspected car, which after we were audited by the external Auditors which were hired by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) it was unveiled that these were not genuine reasons because they came from unreliable companies,” he said.

Ekelege added that the external auditors report answers made the authority’s management to convene an extra ordinary board meeting which gave the management a strong warning.

The hearing continues today.