SINGIDA: THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Singida Region has arraigned five educational officers on charges of abuse of power.
Singida Regional PCCB Head, Ms Sipha Mwanjala, said the officers from the regional secretariat and the Singida Municipal Council also face charges on forgery of various documents resulting in the unlawful acquisition of millions of shillings.
Ms Mwanjala named the officers arraigned as Singida Regional Education Officer, (REO) Dr Elpidius Baganda, the Regional Sports Officer, Amani Mwaipaja, Siah Mtafya, Deonatus Malima and Shehe Mwakilambe Khoja from Singida Municipal Council.
The officer made the remarks here while providing the PCCB quarterly performance report for a period between April and June after journalists had demanded clarifications regarding rumours of some officers from the regional education department being detained for an undisclosed offence.
Commenting on the report, Ms Mwanjala said that PCCB recovered more than 136m/- through the monitoring of various development projects.
She further said that during the period, PCCB made a follow up on 16 projects in the education, health and construction sectors valued at 3.8 bn/- and was able to identify various discrepancies, some of which have been rectified, while others have initiated investigations.
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She said that through the monitoring, 18.85m/- was recovered in Mkalama District Council on the construction of a Vocational Training Centre (VETA) due to improper payment of services provided by the contractor and payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) when it was not applicable.
She revealed that in Manyoni District Council, 1.9m/- was recovered due to improper payments for materials ordered for the construction of a teacher’s house at Itumba primary school in Itigi DC while 1.14m/- was recovered in Iramba District Council.
She further added that during the period in question, 55 complaints from various people were received of which 20 were related to corruption and 35 were not related to corruption.
She noted that in the completed investigations, PCCB recovered 712,000/- from a contractor who failed to deliver goods, despite having already been paid. “In addition to recovering the goods, disciplinary measures were taken by their employers against those involved” she explained.
The PCCB regional chief also said that during the July – September quarter, they strategised to monitor the use of government funds allocated to the region for development projects, continued educating the public and implement the PCCB friendly programme.
