the Customs Commissioner of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Tiagi Masamaki
Prosecution, led by State Attorney Ester Wilson, alleged that they
got a letter from the ZCO saying that all the accused are wanted by the
police for interrogation. She also informed the court that the
investigation into the case was still in progress.
Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi told the court that he
also received the letter but it did not disclose what type of
investigation the police was going to conduct. He granted the
prosecution request and asked it to make follow up on the procedure of
interrogation.
Masamaki is charged along with former IT manager at the Tanzania
Revenue Authority (TRA) Harun Mpande, manager of Customs Services Centre
Habibu Mponezya (45), manager of Customs Control and Enforcement
Bulton Mponezya (51) and In-Charge of Azam Inland Container Depot (ICD)
Eliachi Heriel Mrema (31).
Others are Khamis Ali Omary (48), senior Customs Business analyst;
Harun Lyson Mpande (28), TRA Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) manager; Raymond Adolf Louis (39), Operations, Safety and Security
Manager at Azam ICD and Asharf Yusuf Khan (59), manager Azam ICD.
Because of the salutation, magistrate Shahidi adjourned the case to March 29, when it will come up for mention.
According to the charge sheet, it is alleged that between June 1
and November 12, this year, at an unknown place in the city of Dar es
Salaam, the accused persons conspired together to defraud the government
of the United Republic of Tanzania of 12.7bn/-.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons falsely
represented that 329 containers held at Azam Inland Container Depot
(ACID) were legally released after paying the related taxes, an
assertion they knew to be false.
The prosecution told the court that within the same period, by
failure to discharge their duties in a reasonable manner, the accused
persons caused the government to suffer a pecuniary loss of the said
12.7bn/-.
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