DAR ES SALAAM, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's anti-graft watchdog on Friday charged five senior executives of the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) with corruption offences due to alleged irregularities in a geophysical survey contract three years ago.
The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) charged James Mataragio, former managing director of national oil company, and four other executives of the company with abuse of public office by awarding an airborne gravity gradiometer survey contract, worth 3.2 million U.S. dollars to a United States-based firm, Bell Geospace, contrary to official procedure.
The other charged executives were TPDC's acting exploration manager, the head of procurement, finance director and the director of upstream operations.
PCCB prosecutors alleged at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam that the five TPDC executives dubiously authorized annual procurement plans and budgets between 2014 and 2016, in which the contract to Bell Geospace were awarded without the approval of TPDC's board of directors, which is contrary to the country's public procurement law.
The accused persons pleaded "not guilty" to the charges. They were suspended from their positions in August 2016 pending a corruption investigation after audit queries raised red flags over the award of the deal to the U.S. firm.
Tanzania has made big discoveries of natural gas mostly off the country's southern coast, but the energy industry has been dogged by allegations of corruption in the past.
Despite the estimated recoverable reserves of over 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Tanzania continues to face chronic power shortages due to an over-reliance on hydro-power dams in the drought-prone region.
The government is now determined to invest in new gas-fired power plants to double the country's power generation capacity over the next two years from the current 1,500 megawatts.
