Abuse of office case against top Tanesco officials rages

The Kisutu resident Magistrate Court will continue hearing of the case facing former Tanesco Managing Director William Mhando,
his wife and three others on December 8, this year.

The former Tanesco boss is charged together with his wife, Eva Mhando who is the Managing Director of Santa Clara Supplies Company Ltd, and Tanesco employees France Mchalange, Sophia Msindai and Naftali Kisinga.

Muhando and three other employees are charged with abuse of position and occasioning loss of 884.5m/- while his wife faces charges of forgery, uttering false document and obtaining money by false pretences.

During the first hearing, prosecution witness Athanas Kalikamwe who is the Acting Senior Procurement Manager at Tanesco wanted to produce a photocopy of an evaluation report on a tender for the supply of stationeries involving Santa Clara supplies Company Limited but the defence team objected it.

State Attorney Swai informed the court that they were not able to get the original documents and that the documents had not been at the Tanesco offices and so the court should dismiss them.

The defence team demanded to be provided with the original documents and Magistrate Moshi directed the defence team to trace the whereabouts of the original documents and present them to court.

The prosecution led by State Attorney, Leonard Swai from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) alleged before resident Magistrate, Frank Moshi that Mhando being employed by the company as Managing Director committed the offence in between December 1st and 31st, 2011.

Earlier it was alleged that Muhando when executing his duties intentionally abused his position by his failure to declare interest over Santa Clara Supplies Company Limited, whose directors are his wife and children.

The Prosecutor alleged that Muhando using his influence made it possible for his wife’s company to be awarded a contract to supply stationeries worth 884,550,000/- to Tanesco.
By so doing, Mhando violated the Tanesco Code of Ethics and Conduct and the Public Leadership Code of Ethics by allowing Santa Clara Supplies Company Ltd undue advantage of 31,747,000/-.

On the second count, it was alleged that between January 6th and July 30th 2011 at an unknown place in Dar es Salaam the accused Eva Mhando, with intent to defraud, forged an audited financial report of Santa Clara Supplies Company for the year 2007/08 purporting to show that Finx Capital House audited the balance sheet of the company while knowing the facts were forged.

Eva is also alleged to forge a transfer of shares and purporting to show that she transferred her 200 ordinary shares of 10,000/- in Santa Clara Supplies Company Ltd to Eveta John Shing’oma.

Swai further alleged that between October 1st and 31st, 2011 Mhando’s wife being the Managing Director of Santa Clara Supplies Company with intent to obtain 31,747,000/- from Tanesco submitted false documents such as audited financial report for 2007/8 and list of major contracts the company entered with different firms in two years to the Secretary of Tanesco tender board.

The prosecutor said that on October 17th 2011, the accused Mchalange, Msindai and Kisinga being employed by Tanesco as Principal Accountant, Principal Accountant and Supplies Officer respectively and being members of the evaluation committee for tender number PA /001/11/HQ/G/011 gave false information to the tender board in favour of Eva’s company, the decision that was approved by Tanesco Managing Director.