NA FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE
12th December 2015
A cartel of elite businesspeople and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) top officials conspired to facilitate the passage of 14,244 containers and 3,824 vehicles without paying wharfage amounting to billions of shillings in just a 10-month period, The Guardian can authoritatively report.
Wharfage is the fee charged by a port for goods staying in its yards before they are cleared.
TPA's latest audit report has authoritatively revealed that the containers and cars were sneaked out without paying wharfage during the period from July 2014 to April 2015. The audit, which was carried out following an order from the management, shows that all inland container depots (ICDs) and cargo freight stations (CFSs) were involved in the latest scam.
This paper could not establish the tax value of the containers and vehicles involved, as Dar es Salaam port charges wharfage according to a set percentage of the value of the goods, but it would be safe to say that the port lost billions of shillings in wharfage during the period under review.
According to the report, Dar es Salaam port charges 16 per cent for domestic imports, 12.5 per cent for transit imports and 1 per cent for domestic and transit exports.
In contrast, Dar es Salaam's main business rival, Mombasa, charges wharfage at a flat rate of $70 for a 20-foot container and $105 for a 40-foot container.
"This is a disadvantage for shippers who import through the Dar es Salaam port, as high value will attract higher port charges," Gilbert Langat, the Kenya Shippers Council chief executive officer was quoted as commenting in the report.
"Review of collection of wharfage for containers and vehicles delivered from ICDs and CFSs has revealed weakness in controls pertaining to the collection of revenue, which led to 14,244 containers and 3,824 vehicles to be delivered to consignees without payment of wharfage dues," the audit report signed by Amina Makoko, who is TPA Internal Audit Manager, said.
The audit report indicates that 4,424 containers left the Tanzania Road Haulage ICD without paying wharfage, 4,384 went through the AMI ICD, 2,539 through the JEFAG ICD, 1,149 through PMM, 979 through DICD, 482 through Azam ICD, 153 through Alhushoom and 134 through the MOFED ICD.
The TPA audit report named six CFSs which were involved in the scam as Hesu with 1,664 cars, Farion let go 640 cars, Sliver allowed 522 cars, Tall 414 cars, Chikasa 371 cars and Mass 213 cars.
The report pointed out that former acting TPA Director General, Madeni Kipande, through his letter with reference no. DG/3/3/06 dated 05th February, 2013, formed a committee to supervise TICTS, ICDs and CFSs which were blamed for the loss while completely sidelining Dar es Salaam port manager, under whose jurisdiction ICDs fall.
"Director of Human Resources, through his letter with reference no. HR/1/2/30 dated 19th February, 2013, informed members on their responsibility as per acting Director General's appointment. It is an audit opinion that this committee should go through the weaknesses noted in ICDs and CFSs and review contracts with operators to ensure profitability of ICDs and CFSs to TPA," Makoko said in her audit report.
Asked to comment on the latest controversy associated with his decision, Kipande, who is currently Katavi Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), said through a text message, "You can write what you want but be sure that we shall meet in court."
Kipande, who was suspended by former Transport Minister Samuel Sitta following mismanagement allegations, was appointed RAS by former President Jakaya Kikwete hardly a month before his retirement.
The TPA audit report concluded by saying that it could not obtain a list of delivered containers from the East Coast ICD operator despite efforts to obtain the same while data had been submitted as requested.
"Internal auditors were not able to determine the CIF values of containers/vehicles for computation of wharfage loss due to limitation of Tancis access given to auditors," Makoko's audit report concluded.
This saga comes barely a week after Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa made yet another impromptu tour of the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) where he inspected the port's receiving and clearing cargo system, after he got reports that 2,431 containers were cleared without paying due taxes.
The prime minister then ordered the TPA port acting manager, Hebel Mhanga, to immediately present the names of all those involved in the clearing of the 2,431 containers to his office and gave him one week for the billing system to be changed to electronic-based e-payment system.
According to an inspection report conducted at the port from March to September 2014, the 2,431 containers were cleared without remitting government revenue through four ICDs - JEFAG, DICD, PMM and Azam. Apparently, only 10 TPA officers were taken to task over the matter, leading to their suspension.
"You decided to suspend the small fish and let the big ones to continue working.... the government cannot continue losing revenue like this," Premier Majaliwa stressed.
While at the port, Premier Majaliwa inspected different TPA departments where he witnessed how cargo was inspected using scanners. While in the scanning room, Majaliwa found a manifest showing that a container was full of diapers while the scanned picture in fact showed that the container was full of electricity gadgets.
According to the Acting Port Manager from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Ben Usaje, who is also supervisor of the scanning section, with such contradicting information of what is written on the manifest and what is actually contained in the cargo, the report is usually forwarded to the responsible ICDs so they can inspect by opening the container.
The prime minister's impromptu visits at the port came just a week after 349 containers were found missing at the Dar es Salaam port involving 43 clearing and forwarding firms. CHANZO: THE GUARDIAN