AfricaPress-Tanzania: HIRING of unqualified and incompetent firm to renovate the heritage building, poor supervision and illegal sub-contracting are among reasons that contributed to the collapse of the Beit al Ajaib historical building on Christmas Day.
Briefing journalists after a probe team completed its task as directed by President Hussein Mwinyi, Minister for Tourism and Heritage Ms Lela Mohamed Mussa mentioned other reasons linked to the collapse of the building as violation of the construction agreement, negligence by the Stone Town Board, and failure by the former ministry to oversee the major renovation work.
“Executives who served in the former tourism ministry and in the Zanzibar Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority (ZSTCDA) will be held accountable as the public services law, Zanzibar Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Authority (ZAECA) and other laws require to ensure those who messed-up are put to task,” Ms Lela said.
She said that the Italian firm, Costruzioni Generali Giladi (CGG), had no skills to carry out the renovation work of the Beit el Ajab building at the cost of more than USD 5.9 million started in November 2019 and was supposed to finish this month (February 2021).
She said the company had already been paid USD 621, 389.07 of the budgeted money paid by the Oman government which was funding the project and that only ten per cent of the job had been done by the time the building collapsed on December 25, 2021.
According to the Minister, she agreed with the suggestion by the probe team to have the STCDA board dissolved and also task ZAECA to find out why the former tourism ministry authorised payments to the constructor before doing the job, and why the supervisor was also paid huge amount of money 58.9m/- (Tanzanian shillings) for the shoddy work.
She said the Oman government was responsible for only making direct payment to the constructor after approval of the local authorities in the former ministry, but it is unfortunate that the whole work was being done by an unskilled contractor and under poor supervision.
The minister did not mention executives in the former Ministry of Information, Tourism, and Heritage implicated in the saga, but promised to spare no one who failed to follow the rules resulting in the tragedy.
After the collapse of the building President Mwinyi said Zanzibar had lost its icon and one the famous tourist attraction sites but vowed to spare no efforts including collaborating with development partners abroad to try to restore the building.
