President Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania is furious after it emerged that a new cargo plane imported for the State-owned Air Tanzania had its balance invoice inflated by USD 50 million.
In an address to her cabinet, the President who is facing elections for the first time as a Presidential candidate next year, minced no words as she read the riot act to a pensive audience of executives and government officials.
“How can an official accept the inflation of an invoice from the original USD 37 million to USD 86 million without question,” she fumed, indicating such officials have their days numbered as civil servants.
She termed such acts as “stupid” and that Tanzania has since run out of patience for such.
She said the shocking fraud was machinations by Tanzanian State officials in cahoots with the aircraft manufacturers, in a BBC video.
“Such people need to go, because such fraud cannot be accepted in our government,” she warned in a tone that can only compare to the toughness of her predecessor John Pombe Magufuli who died at the height of Covid pandemic.
President Suluhu has been carrying the baton of better government with less pilferage and today boats of the launch and operationalizing of the longest electric speed train in Africa.
The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma in Tanzania is 440 kilometers long.
The electric trains on this line can travel between the two cities in less than four hours, which is half the time it takes to travel by road.
During her tenure, Mombasa port has lost a significant percentage of the tonnage business to Dar es Salaam on what is credited with better and efficient handling of cargo in the neighboring country.
