New Government Sweeps Port of Dar es Salaam Clean

In an ongoing corruption, fraud and tax evasion sweep at the port of Dar es Salaam, newly elected President John Magufuli has dissolved the board of the Tanzania Port Authority and dismissed the head of the Ministry of Transport. 

These dismissals follow ever-increasing revelations of tax evasion on import duties and port fees, with some 2,400 containers allegedly passing through unrecorded and untaxed in 2014.

In November, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa conducted two surprise inspections of the port, and he said that the current level of official response to corruption was unacceptable. The port's own report on the missing containers said that some ten low-level employees were dismissed for involvement. “You have decided to suspend ordinary workers and leave bosses to continue working. We cannot continue denying the government revenue in such a way," said Majaliwa.

During his second inspection, the Prime Minister also took the port's management to task for misallocation of funds. He said that key projects financed by the government had not been started. “The main goal of you being given that money was for the improvement of projects so that you could run your firm commercially, but you decided to spend it on your salaries," he said.

Last week, eight officials of the Tanzania Revenue Authority were indicted on charges of economic sabotage and tax evasion over the missing container scandal. They included the head of Customs and the Commissioner for Customs and Exise Duty. The charges followed shortly after the President suspended the head of the Revenue Authority and five other officials; he also requested their arrest and the confiscation of their passports pending the outcome of an investigation.

The anti-corruption shakeup comes at the same time as the announcement of a new loan of about $350 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for improvements in the Tanzanian transport sector, primarily for road building and repaving. One stated goal of the loan is to improve connections between Tanzania's port and its inland neighbors, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to maintain the nation's status as a regional transport hub.