Tanzanian president demands Indian contractor’s passport

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Tanzanian president demands Indian contractor’s passport

4:59 CAT | 03 Mar 2017

AFP / John Magufuli is a no-nonsense politician, nicknamed "the Bulldozer"

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has ordered the confiscation of the passport of an Indian contractor who has failed to finish a water project on time.

The contractor, Rajendra Kumar of Alliance Private Limited, was supposed to complete it in March 2015.

But according to the water minister, he failed to do so because he ran out of cash.

The 11.6m euro ($12.2m, £9.9m) project is to dig 10 wells for the benefit of about 82,000 residents in the south-eastern Lindi region

The government is funding the wells with a loan from the European Union and German KfW Development Bank.

Mr Magufuli looked visibly upset when he saw that the project was not finished when he visited Lindi earlier today:

“We cannot allow the people of Lindi to continue with water shortages.”

“The project has been delayed for two years because the contractor has decided to take the money to India.”

He also hit out at officials from the water ministry as with 90% of the loan spent, the wells are far from completion.

“And you who are supposed to supervise him are not doing anything. Why didn’t you fire him all this time?”

The president said if the project was not completed in four months, the project supervisors would be punished.

The contractor has not responded to the president’s comments.

Nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, Mr Magufuli is seen as a no-nonsense politician, who has cracked down on corruption and mismanagement since coming to office in 2015.

Source: BBC