Sacked Tanesco lawyer speaks out on escrow

Dar es Salaam. Former Tanesco lawyer Godwin Ngwilimi has opened up about his role in the investigation into the Tegeta Escrow account, saying “time will ultimately prove me truthful.”

On Wednesday when presenting a statement by the Parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) on the Controller and Auditor General’s report on the Tegeta escrow account, PAC chairman Zitto Kabwe claimed that Mr  Ngwilimi was sacked for advising the board not to release Tegeta Escrow money to IPTL.

According to Mr Kabwe, the former Tanesco lawyer, who had just visited Malaysia, wrote a letter to the company’s managing director warning him against the release of Sh306 billion to IPTL. The reason for the lawyer’s move, Mr Kabwe said, was due to controversy surrounding Pan African Power Solution’s acquisition of Piper Links shares in IPTL.

Reached for comment yesterday, Mr Ngwilimi preferred not to go into details claiming only time will clear him. “I don’t want to get involved in the debate but only time will tell; the truth always comes out when the time is right,” he says.

Mr Ngwilimi said he fulfilled his responsibility as Tanesco’s lawyer to advise decision makers over the PAP acquisition of Piper Links shares in IPTL.

“My work was simply to advise Tanesco management but whether they worked on my advice or not isn’t up to me; but at least they had to consider my advice when making their decisions.” .

However, the government dismissed claims that Mr Ngwilimi was sacked. According to the Energy and Minerals minister, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, the lawyer actually  resigned on his own volition.

“Mr Ngwilimi wasn’t sent to Malaysia by Tanesco to investigate PAP acquisition of Piper Links; in fact he lied to the power utility firm’s management that he along with other official from Attorney General office were sent by the AG to Malaysia,” said Prof Werema.

Source: THE CITIZEN