Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tanapa boss quits

The Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) director- general, Mr Gerald Bigurube, has resigned. Mr Edward Kishe has taken over as the acting director-general.
Information from Tanapa said authorities have accepted his resignation. No reason was given. "Mr Bigurube has already handed over the office after acceptance of his resignation.
We are now under Mr Kishe who is acting, said one Tanapa employee who did not want to be named as he was not its spokesman.
Contacted yesterday to give explanation of his resignation, Mr Bigurube said: "The one who told you that I have resigned should be the one to confirm the reports... I am not the spokesman on the issue at this point."

He said for some time there had been witch-hunting within Tanapa, and people had been circulating allegations against him. But he said what was being peddled in the media were lies.

In recent months, Tanapa has been facing a welter of criticism on mismanagement and funds misuse. The Opposition in Parliament last week sought a detailed explanation on reports of misuse of Sh7.3 billion by Tanapa. In May some sections of the East African media ran stories about Tanapa's financial impropriety.
Tanapa was allegedly found to have been riddled with massive financial irregularities in the latest audit report by Controller and Auditor General (CAG) Ludovick Utouh.

CAG was quoted as saying the procurement of advertising services from CNN and Jambo Publications did not follow procurement procedures.
He said his office found that the Ministry of National Resources and Tourism, contrary to requirements of the Public Procurement Act of 2004, handled all procurement processes.
The total contract sum for advertising with CNN in 2007/08 was $750,000. Further, Tanapa signed a new contract for $800,000 for 2008/09 for advertising services.

According to the CAG Report on the Financial Statements of Public Authorities and Other Bodies for the Financial Year 2007/08, the contract was signed by Mr Bigurube and board chairman Emmanuel Balele.
Both contracts failed to specifically indicate the timing, duration, length and frequency a day of the advertisements.

The contracts also did not indicate details of what time the adverts were to appear or procedures to monitor whether the advertisements were aired at the right time and quality. Terms of payments were also lacking. For instance, Tanapa paid Sh1 billion in October 2007 to CNN.

"The payments were not supported by broadcasting confirmation orders or any other documents confirming frequencies of the advertisements aired by CNN,said the report.

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