Trouble brewing in the wildlife division: Amidst mounting allegations of corruption, all-powerful director continues to call the tune


THIS DAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

THERE is an urgent need for radical changes in the troubled wildlife division to root out massive revenue losses and institutionalised corruption from within its corridors.

Members of Parliament have repeatedly been asking the government to clean up the department , and Prime Minister Edward Lowassa is on record as having promised the legislators there would be action towards this end. However, nothing appears top have worked so far.

The first major attempt to clean up the wildlife division came in December 2005 when President Jakaya Kikwete appointed Anthony Diallo as Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism. Subsequently, the president also named the former head of the tourism division, Salehe Pamba, as the ministry’s permanent secretary.

Immediately after his appointment, Diallo - with some degree of success - started to aggressively tackle the problem of government revenue losses through illegal logging and exports of timber products.

But in what would eventually prove to be his undoing, the minister ventured to apply the same sort of dynamic approach to the wildlife division and even sought to transfer its all-powerful director Emmanuel Severre to the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), in an attempt to reorganize the department.

The well-catalogued events that subsequently unfolded last year saw Diallo’s authority grossly undermined by Severre’s refusal to leave office, resulting in a precarious situation of two bosses jostling for one lucrative seat at the wildlife division.

And in a bizarre outcome, Diallo’s decision to transfer Severre from the wildlife division was eventually overturned by powerful people in government believed to be allied to the director.

Months later, both Diallo and Pamba were removed from the ministry with Severre firmly reinstated as boss of the wildlife division.

It has since been widely rumoured that the seemingly untouchable director somehow managed to ’engineer’ the transfers of Diallo and Pamba out of the ministry, they being the same people who had unsuccessfully tried to remove him from his post at the wildlife division.

According to well-placed government sources, at least three ’very powerful’ individuals in the cabinet and at State House were behind Severre’s well-orchestrated reinstatement to the department.

Under Severre’s watch, the wildlife division has been fraught with mounting allegations of corruption in the tourist hunting industry and dismal performance in government revenue collection and protection of dwindling wildlife resources.

There are also serious though unproven allegations of the mysterious sale and illegal exports of tonnes and tonnes of elephant tusks from the Ivory Room at the wildlife division.

The director general of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Edward Hosea, has publicly confirmed that the government’s anti-corruption watchdog is investigating corruption allegations in the wildlife sector.

However, few observers expect to see any real progress in this investigation given the PCCB’s own reputation for ineffectualness in fighting high-level corruption within government.

Allegations of grand corruption in the wildlife sector were first raised in the 1990s, when the Warioba Commission on corruption detailed gross irregularities in the ownership of several tourist hunting companies with links to top government officials and the allocation of hunting blocks like the infamous Loliondo area.

In 1994, when the National Assembly was debating the 1994/95 government budget estimates, a private member’s motion was moved by legislator Philip Marmo (now the incumbent minister responsible for good governance) to form a select parliamentary committee to probe corruption allegations against the wildlife division, then under the directorship of Muhidin Ndolanga.

Severre, who worked under Ndolanga, was later appointed director of the wildlife division after Ndolanga was removed from his post.

Apart from having powerful friends in high places in government, the current director is also known to enjoy firm support from major tourist hunting firms in Tanzania.

The current Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof. Jumanne Maghembe, in July this year announced increases in annual hunting block licences to between $40,000 and $50,000, trophy fees for lions and leopards to $12,000 and elephant fees to $15,000.

The new fees, however, have been greeted with fierce opposition by the financially powerful and well-connected tourist hunting firms.

So far, the wildlife division has licensed a total of 158 hunting blocks in the country, with most of the lucrative concessions controlled by a few powerful foreigners usually using local shareholders as a front.

Illegal sub-leasing of hunting block concessions remains a largely untamed activity, and there are now fears of an unsustainable industry with the on-going over-hunting of the ’Big Four’ game - lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo.

Industry watchers say the incumbent minister would be well-advised to avoid falling into the same trap as his predecessor, by not trying to meddle too much in the affairs of the intertwined interests of powerful government officials in the country’s wildlife sector.

quote:

Industry watchers say the incumbent minister would be well-advised to avoid falling into the same trap as his predecessor, by not trying to meddle too much in the affairs of the intertwined interests of powerful government officials in the country’s wildlife sector.

On the day before I made my first trip to Africa, the PH sent me an e-mail that said that the concession owner/operator had been in a "car accident" that resulted in his having a bullet in the back of his head and his car being burned out. He had pissed off the president's half-brother with comments that were printed in a newspaper.

Do "car accidents" so occur in Tanzania?

"Illegal sub-leasing"...is it really illegal? Doesn't sound like it would be.

Mr. Delta,

We can not make assumptions for what Africans consider legal and illegal. Even the golden rule is only sometimes followed there and the Christian golden rule is practicaly non-existant. Law there is not based in our Anglo heritage.

I understand what you're saying but you missed my question. The sub-leasing is a common, well-known occurrence and citizens from outside of Africa are involved in it also. Is sub-leasing of concessions illegal? That's the first time I've heard it declared that way. Of course, it drives up the cost and irritates the consumer...but is it illegal? I ask that because I see no evidence of it being prosecuted. My point is that, to my knowledge, sub-leasing is not illegal and is a common practice.

Apparently, subleasing of Tanzanian hunting blocks can be done legally, but not very easily.

See Bwanamich's posts in this thread for the several hoops that need to be jumped through:

Tanzanian Hunting Block Subleasing

Given how things are run, one must wonder whether it is in fact done illegally more often than legally.

I think you missed my point Mr. Delta. Most countries in sub-saharan Africa use laws and break laws in ways we can't even fathom. It is the privelege of people working with completely corrupt governments and desperate citizens. If this "Minister of take your money" says something is illegal this week apparently he won't know the law any more when you go make sure the "Minister of wheel grease" takes your money and everything works out just fine. This is just one of thousands of scenarios that make zero sence when dealing in Africa.

Mr Smarter, most of the world functions this way, in case you had'nt noticed. Including our country, the US of A. Remember Bill Clinton pardoning his guilty, convicted druggie brother? Remember OJ being declared innocent? etc.
people with power and privilege get the breaks. Sen Kennedy is an example after Chappaquiddick
And what does exactly does "Christian heritage " have to do with anything?
In case you forget, the President is Christian

quote:

Originally posted by smarterthanu:
I think you missed my point Mr. Delta. Most countries in sub-saharan Africa use laws and break laws in ways we can't even fathom. It is the privelege of people working with completely corrupt governments and desperate citizens. If this "Minister of take your money" says something is illegal this week apparently he won't know the law any more when you go make sure the "Minister of wheel grease" takes your money and everything works out just fine. This is just one of thousands of scenarios that make zero sence when dealing in Africa.

Thanks MR for the post and link. It actually isn't clear what is taking place but that's more info than I had.

It sounds like sub-leasing can be done legally but sometimes it is not all above board. No big revelation there. You mean there is corruption in govt. regulation and specifically Africa?