AfricaPress-Tanzania: MINISTER for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Harrison Mwakyembe has said the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), is right to investigate the allegedly misuse of funds, meant for the preparations of the 2019 Under-17 AFCON tournament.
This comes after PCCB announced that they are investigating to trace all those who were involved in the mismanagement of funds donated by President John Magufuli and other stakeholders meant for the preparations of the continental youth football competition held here last year.
The announcement was made recently in Dar es Salaam by PCCB Director John Mbungo, who insisted that they have gathered enough evidence to track down those who were involved in the malpractice.
Commenting a bit on the ongoing probe undertaken by PCCB concerning the misuse of funds meant for the preparations of the 2019 Under-17 AFCON tournament, Mwakyembe said the organ is taking the right step and that it should be supported to conduct its roles effectively.
“PCCB was lawfully established to look into such malpractices and I believe that they will come up with answers to the allegations,” Mwakyembe said.
He however disclosed that the amount which is alleged to have been misused is more than 1bn/-and urged all the concerned parties like the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), the National Sports Council (NSC) and his ministry to give PCCB full cooperation in their investigations.
Also, in her reaction, NSC Acting General Secretary, Neema Msitha said they are ready to assist PCCB when requested to do so.
On Sunday, TFF president Wallace Karia also said that he is happy to see the PCCB is investigating the matter.
“For now, we should let PCCB accomplish their responsibilities and thereafter we can have something to say.
I am one of the persons who is delighted to see the issue being investigated such that soon, we will get their final results”.
“If anyone in the federation including myself is found guilty, we will be ready for anything,” Karia said.
In another development, Minister Mwakyembe his ministry has proposed that when sport activities are flagged off, only football leagues should be entertained while the rest will join later.
Sports stakeholders in the country are eagerly waiting to hear the actual date when sports events will resume.
On Sunday, President Magufuli declared that if the current trend of Covid-19 transmission continues to nose dive, then he will let sports events to restart, saying they provide entertainment to Tanzanians.
Giving more insight on the development, Minister Mwakyembe pointed out that his ministry together with concerned sport stakeholders have proposed that the first phase of sports resumption should only attract football leagues, while other sport events will follow later.
“First of all, we want to start with football leagues, while keenly assessing the situation on the ground before we incorporate all other events to unfold.
“We have already submitted our proposal to the top levels of the government for them to look at it and come up with adequate measures prior to the recommencement of the games,” said Mwakyembe.
“We have to deal with this headache of knowing which team will win the league title and get the team to represent the country in the CAF Champions League (CAF CL).
Also, we need to determine which teams will be promoted and relegated,” he said.
He again stressed that president Magufuli is leaving no stone unturned as far as ensuring that all precaution measures to curb further spread of Covid-19 pandemic are taken into consideration, before letting sport activities resume.
