East African Business Week

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - The British parliament is forcing Tanzania hand to prosecute Government officials who were involved in the scandalous radar deal, who to date haven't been made accountable for their criminal role in the corruption.
This should come as a shock to the Government of President Jakaya Kikwete because things looked pacified following the British court's award to Tanzania of compensation of US$46 million in August 2011 for the corrupt deal between the British radar manufacturer, BAE Systems and Tanzania Government officials.
It also opens wide the possibility of revealing complicity of more senior officials of the previous Government of President Benjamin Mkapa to the disgrace of Tanzania's touted Good Governance.
However, the compensation award has not been credited to Dar es Salaam apparently because BAE system had little confidence in the Dar Administration, thus it wanted to pay through NGOs which can deliver directly to Tanzania children by way enabling education needs and paying for school books and equipment.
The British House committee is forcing BAE to settle the compensation immediately, and expressed readiness to stand witness in any prosecution of the corruption suspects in Dar or London courts.  
The decision by the International Development Select Committee of the House of Commons in London puts in the firing line former Attorney General Andrew Chenge, the former Governor of the Bank of Tanzania (Central Bank), Dr Idris Rashidi, and a Dar businessman Shailesh Vithlani.
The UK House decision is unpleasant Christmas gift for the Government and the people who overpriced the purchase bill of the radar and distributing the loot, in millions of US dollars, among themselves, but left an indelible trail that revealed their culpability.   
Tanzania's Director of Public Prosecution and the Director of the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) have all along claimed they didn't have adequate evidence to prosecute Chenge and Dr Rashidi. When interviewed by the media last week, the two officials showed little enthusiasm to pursue the matter demanding for evidence.
However, the British parliamentary Committee claims it has evidence to successfully prosecute the suspects and its ready to co-operate, but Tanzania hasn't been forthcoming to take advantage of evidence. In fact the British Government has offered that information to Dar before, but Dar dismissed it claiming it was inadequate.
The scandal suspects had assumed they were free from prosecution because the British Court didn't find them guilty of the radar scandal because of a 'plea bargain' between BAE and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) that it failed to keep records of the deal. It was fined for the failure, but the London Court ruled Tanzania had to be compensated the defrauded UK £29.5 million.
The UK House Committee however, has faulted the 'plea bargain' arrangement and is demanding for Tanzania officials involved in the radar scandal to be brought to book.
SFO claims that Andrew Chenge was among people BAE paid off and that he deposited the money in an offshore bank in Jersey Island of UK. Asked on the foreign deposits allegations a few years ago, he dismissed the amount of $1.5 million as being non-consequential.