Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: A day after the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) refuting the involvement of its president Wallace Karia in the saga that locked the African governing football body, CAF’s president Ahmad Ahmad in abuse of power and mishandling of funds, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has said that it investigates the money saga which Tanzania is linked.
The saga has compelled the World’s governing football body, Fifa to lock out Ahmad for five years from taking part in all football activities.
PCCB Director John Mbungo has said that the bureau has begun to investigate, going into the details of the received claims relating to CAF money in order to know the truth of the issue.
“We have already started investigating on the development even though the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has written a letter denying any involvement into the saga. “As you know, the misuse of funds, maladministration and corruption is the responsibility of PCCB to investigate and we cannot just remain quiet without taking any measures whenever we have such information on our table, whether it concerns a public or private entity,” he said.
He added: “Immediately after we heard about this development, our team has started to investigate so as to ensure that we get all the required information and let justice prevail.”
Queried where they have reached on the investigations about the misuse of funds which were meant for the preparations of Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations which Tanzania hosted last year, Mbungo said they are still proceeding with the investigations.
“When the issue is under investigation consists of many people,” “You should definitely expect the entire process to take some time because our job is to let justice emerge and not to implicate innocent people into the concerned issue. “The AFCON money touched many people and ministries as such, you can not complete the whole process within a short period of time or else, you can take into account those people who were never involved,” he said.
He continued: “The misuse of AFCON preparation money is very broad hence we are keenly going into available details in order to allow the rule of law take its course without favouring anyone.”
President John Magufuli was the first to donate 1bn/- for the preparation of the country’s U-17 Serengeti Boys in the AFCON assignment which was followed by donations from other stakeholders but later, it was alleged that the donated funds were mismanaged.
Due to this, PCCB had launched investigations which saw key figures from TFF, Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, National Sports Council and other sectors summoned for questioning over the allegations.
