East African Business Week

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - The radar scandal has re-emerged to haunt the former Tanzania Attorney General, Andrew Chenge and called into question the Tanzania’s seriousness in the war against graft.
This surfaced in reacting to the return of the four-man Parliamentary delegation from the United Kingdom, and their submission of their report to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Anna Makinda, which has recommended Chenge be prosecuted for his part in the scandalous purchase of a radar in 1995 from BAE Systems of Great Britain.
Led by the opposition party, Chadema, Parliament demanding  the prosecution of Chenge, (MP for Bariadi - CCM), and all who were involved in the overpricing of the purchase price of the radar from UK pounds from 12 million to 29 million, and splitting the different among cohorts.
The four-person team of MPs, led by the Deputy Speaker, Mr  Job Ndugai, who had gone to demand the return of some $29.5 million that a London Crown Court ruled the Tanzania Government should be compensated by BAE systems for the scandalous deal.
BAE systems has declined to remit the money to Tanzania as it suspects that the Dar es Salaam administration which failed to prosecute those involved in the scandal would misuse the compensation money.
It recommended the money be given to Tanzania via British NGOs active in Tanzania,  a decision which has been vehemently objected by the Government claiming that was an insult to the integrity of the Tanzania leadership, thus the MPs decision to travel to London.
 The delegation returned convinced that accomplices in the radar scandal including Chenge, the former Governor of the Central Bank Dr Idris Rashidi, and the middlemen Tanil Kumar Chandalal Somaia, Shailish Pragji Vithlani should be prosecuted
The delegation succeeded in convincing BAE to open a special bank account to keep the compensation money awaiting the  finalization of negotiations between BAE and the Tanzania Government.
Although the Minister of State (Good Governance), Mathias Chikawe, defended Chenge telling the House that "there is no solid evidence to successfully prosecute Chenge," and thus no action will be taken against him and his accomplices, Chadema says it has solid evidence from the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to prosecute Chenge.
Chadema claims it has a copy of an eleven-page correspondence by SFO in 2008 to the Tanzania Government that incriminates Chenge and 'company' in the radar scandal. It points to SFO's revelations that Chenge had pocketed some proceeds from the radar sale and through his company banked $1.5 million in a Barclays' Bank offshore branch in Jersey island of UK.
 Chenge has reacted claiming that the eleven-page SFO correspondence was "outdated and worthless", he maintains he is innocent although he has never explained how he got the $1.5 million.
 Chadema has promised to take the issue to the public soon after the end of the budget session of the National Assembly.