TPDC puts on hold compesation for 39 villagers

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) has put on hold the compensation for 39 persons who have to vacate their land to pave way for the $30 billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant project, pending verification of their details, including bank information.

The beneficiaries are among the 76 who were recently reported to have failed to show up for verification of their details.

Last month (May 2020), TPDC issued compensation to some 617 verified project-affected persons (PAPs) whereby at least Sh5.2 billion was set aside for the purpose.

TPDC’s head of public relations and communications, Ms Marie Msellemu told The Citizen yesterday that the money will be returned to the Treasury if the intended beneficiaries fail to show up and verify their details within the specified period of time (valid up to five years from the compensation date).

“Most of the people failed to verify their details due to various reasons such as coronavirus fears, illness and some had travelled when the compensation process was conducted in May,” said Ms Msellemu.

She added: “Recently, we have issued compensation amounting to Sh310 million to 37 people who initially failed to show up for verification and the exercise is still underway.”

The exercise was being conducted by TPDC, Lindi Municipality, chief valuer, Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and bank officials. “The compensation process will be followed by physical verification to ensure that the compensation and other preliminary activities related to the LNG project were carried out as intended ahead of the kick-off of the project construction” added Ms Msellemu.