Two former ministers in Tanzania have been sentenced to three years in jail over gold-related corruption charges.
Documents released by a Tanzanian court revealed that the ministers were reportedly involved in the awarding of a contract to audit gold production from the African country.
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Reuters reported lawyers as saying that the former 75-year old finance minister Basil Mramba and ex-energy and minerals minister Daniel Yona, 76, would appeal.
The permanent secretary Gray Mgonja of former Tanzanian Finance Ministry was also jointly charged, along with the former ministers.
However, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s court in Dar es Salaam acquitted him.
According to the court document, the ministers were accused of abusing their authority in 2002 by arbitrarily awarding the contract.
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By GlobalDataThe court also convicted the ex-ministers of illegally extending an audit contract for two years after even it expired in the 2005.
The audit cost the government millions of dollars in lost revenues, BBC reported.
Mramba is said to have used his position to let off the auditor’s local subsidiary of paying TZS11.75bn ($5.3m) in government taxes wrongly.
