AfricaPress-Tanzania: PERMANENT Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Agriculture Gerald Kusaya has warned leaders and members of cooperative unions across the country to avoid illegal possession of the union’s properties, saying the government will not hesitate to intervene and take serious legal measures.
Opening an investment symposium for Kilimanjaro Cooperative Bank Limited, the PS said the government had been working hard to recover assets from dishonest leaders and members of cooperative unions.
Last week, the PS said in Mwanza that the government had returned assets worth over 61bn/- to Nyanza Cooperative Union (NCU-1984 Ltd) illegally acquired by some of the union’s dishonest staff a year ago.
Speaking during the handover of property, Mr Kusaya warned cooperative officers, who engaged in illegal possession of their property that the government would not hesitate to punish them.
He noted that any cooperative union’s asset acquired illegally and owned by an individuals or institutions would be returned to legal owner.
On Monday, the PS said in Dodoma that some more assets had been returned. He said cooperative unions whose properties had been returned, include Nyanza, Geita and Simiyu.
He said the returned assets included plots, buildings and 59 machineries all worth 68.9bn/-.
However, he called on other cooperative unions countrywide to see into it that dishonest members of staff were exposed, saying: “It was not an easy task to return these properties. The government through its experts worked day and night to ensure these assets were returned to owners,” said the PS.
He used the platform to stress a need for KCBL to ensure those trusted after overhauling of the bank to ensure they did not repeat mistakes that led to its downfall.
“Failure to repay loans, dishonest and lack of integrity among the majority of KCBL staff contributed to its downfall, thus you must observe patriotism, excellence and professionalism,” said Mr Kusaya.
For his part, CRDB Bank Chief Commercial Officer, Dr Joseph Witts, said they had injected 7bn/- capital into KCBL.
On top of that they make close supervision to ensure they win public trust.
Dr Witts said they had put in place the board and management whereas its operations most likely matched that of CRDB Bank.
