MPs reject report on sale of mine shares
The Energy and Minerals Parliamentary Committee has rejected a report by the Minister for Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja over the sale of 75 per cent share in the Mwadui Gold Mines.
The parliamentary committee has also called for the ministry to rewrite a detailed report and present the contract showing all processes followed on the purchase of Mwadui Gold Mine.
Mwadui Gold Mine is run by a partnership of the Government and a South African Williamson Diamonds Limited with the government owning 25 per cent and Wilcroft 75 per cent, wilcroft a subsidiary of De Beers of South Africa reported a sale of its shares to Petra Diamonds Limited.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the depute chairman of the Mineral and Energy Parliamentary Committee Dr Harrison Mwakyembe confirmed to have discussed the report and faced a serious debate from the committee members.
Dr Mwakyembe said there were parts of the report which the committee did not agree to as they did not convince members declining to disclose the committee stand.
"As you have seen we received a report today from the minister responsible, all the committee decisions are still confidential until the next parliamentary session," said Dr Mwakyembe.
We have received the minister's report; we have discussed it in detail taking into consideration over the decisions of the government over the purchase of 75 per cent shares in Mwadui, added Dr Mwakyembe.
Some of the parts which faced a hot criticism included the fact that de Beers Company had proposed to the government on the expansion of the mining which would cost $130 million from each side, in return of the only benefit Tanzania could get was the provision of jobs and community help in areas surrounding the mining centers.
Others were the debt worth $87.5 Million in the partnership resulting from the 1998 secret pact of selling diamonds from Wilcroft to DTC.
But the Energy Minister William Ngeleja told reporters soon after presenting his report to the committee that the committee had accepted the report praising the government over the processes for the sell of Williamson Diamond.
"The committee has advised the government to continue supervising the mineral sector for the benefits of the public," said Ngeleja.
Remember that according to ministerial researches, which approved that Petra Diamonds has the ability to run the Mwadui, Shinyanga Region-based mine profitably; the government agreed the sale of the share to Petra Diamond.
However, from impeccable sources it is said that the committee has identified laziness in supervising the mineral sector in the country going further that they may suggest in the coming parliament further investigations be carried out over the whole process leading to the sell of the Mwadui Mines.
"Can you imagine that Government representatives supposed to represent the government in different meetings hardly attend, in more than 10 meetings, there is no even one which they attended, how can they know developments in the investment," questioned a source.
Had the committee suggest the probe over Williamson diamond company, it will investigate on the whole business, also to identify if government representatives attend meetings held by the company.
Meanwhile, the government is finalizing the setting up of a probe committee that will investigate the $87.5 Million debt left by Williamson to identify if it is legal or not before the new shareholders takes up businesses in the mine.
The shares secured by the London-listed company were previously owned by Willcroft Company Limited, a subsidiary of South African giant DeBeers, while the Government continues to hold a minority 25 per cent stake in the mine.
The Government decision to approve the shares transfer was based on recommendations by its own formed mining sector review committee headed by Judge Mark Bomani, as well as mining sector experts.
On December Last year, the Government was not willing to recognize the sale of Williamson mine shares because de bears as the sister company of wilcroft did not honor the right of first refusal stipulated in section 6.1 of its partnership contract with the Government.
According to the contract signed in 1994, if wilcroft were to sell its shares, it was obliged to inform the government and offer its first opportunity to buy the shares.
Source:TheCitizen
Links 