Africa-Press – Tanzania. AN investigator with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Faith Manyarika, has testified that she found some misdeeds after investigating a case facing senior officials of the Tanzania Teachers Union (CWT), Deus Seif and his co-accused, Abubakar Allawi.
Ms Manyarika poses as witness to the case of funds misuse facing Mr Seif, former CWT Secretary General, and his co-accused Allawi, the Treasurer.
She told Senior Resident Magistrate Rashid Chaungu at Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam that she discovered some misdeeds after identifying some of the documents signed by the two CWT officials.
She was testifying in the case in which the two are charged with abuse of position and embezzlement of 3.9m/-.
“The documents include a letter of payment, a sample document of their signatures and an investigation report which confirms that the money was misused from the bank,” said the witness.
She explained that after the accused refused to submit the actual payment documents for further investigation, it was clear that there was misuse of funds.
“I also investigated their bank accounts to establish whether the money they spent on their trip to watch the World Cup really belonged to them as they claimed” the witness told the court.
According to the witness, there was no money in their accounts which was equal to the amount of money they spent on the trip.
The witness requested the court to accept the documents she had as exhibits, a request which was greeted with strong objection from defense Counsel Nestory Nkoba.
The Advocate challenged the request to accept the exhibits in question, submitting that the documents differed significantly from the documents of the accused in the way they were prepared.
In countering the objection, Prosecuting Attorney from the PCCB, Imani Nitume submitted that the defense counsel had not produced any evidence that showed the documents were inconsistent and that their allegations were unfounded.
The magistrate confirmed the discrepancy in the two payment documents and asked the prosecution to provide adequate clarification on the matter before he postponed the hearing of the case to October 23, 2021.
The two accused persons, being employees of CWT, were arraigned before the court facing two charges of abuse of position and embezzling 13, 930,693/- worth of assets.
They are alleged to have committed the offences between October 3, 2018 and November 6, 2018, at the CWT Offices in Kinondoni.
They are all out on bail on conditions of depositing in court 3.4m/- cash bond or presenting a title deed of immovable property certified at the value of such amount. The accused persons were also directed to secure two reliable sureties who each signed a bond of 7m/-.
