DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Thursday ordered the suspension of senior officials mentioned in reports by Tanzanian parliamentary investigative committees on diamonds and tanzanite mining.
"Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Regional Administrative Secretaries, Regional Commissioners and District Commissioners mentioned in the two reports should be relieved of their duties pending investigations," said Magufuli shortly after he was presented with the reports at State House in Dar es Salaam.
The two reports which were presented to the president by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa revealed massive corruption, secrecy, cheating, tax evasion and negligence by government officials causing losses of millions of U.S. dollars to the east African nation.
Among others, the report mentioned former Deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals, George Simbachawene, former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry Energy and Minerals, Eliakim Maswi and senior officials in the ministry.
Simbachawene is now Minister of State in the President's Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Governments and Maswi is now Regional Administrative Secretary for Manyara region.
President Magufuli, who doubles as the east African nation's commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ordered defence and security organs to immediately start investigating all thorny issues raised in the reports.
"The officials mentioned in the two reports should give way pending the investigations," said Magufuli.
"The two committees have shown weaknesses in overseeing our natural resources. It is high time all Tanzanians became patriotic in protecting our resources," said Magufuli.
The parliamentary committee tasked to investigate diamonds mining in the central region of Shinyanga revealed that weak mining contracts entered by corrupt government officials with mining companies was a thorn in the flesh to the country.
Mussa Hassan Zungu, the chairman of the committee, said there were conflicting data on the actual amount of diamond transported outside the country among various government institutions. The two reports were submitted in the National Assembly in Dodoma on Wednesday.
Zungu appealed to the government to review laws pertaining to diamond mining to enable Tanzania to benefit from the resource.
On July 5, the National Assembly formed a nine-man investigative team to assess how Tanzania was benefiting from diamond mining.
The investigative team looked at regulation, ownership and diamond mining, said Speaker Ndugai.
He said the team drawing Members of Parliament from the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the opposition camp worked for 30 days before submitting its report.
In June, Magufuli suspended issuance of new mining licenses to investors until after the government reorganizes itself.
He said minerals, including gold, that were being mined in the country were natural resources that belonged to Tanzanians and that his administration would never tolerate seeing a few individuals benefiting from the country's natural resources, leaving majority of Tanzanians swimming in poverty.
In May this year, Magufuli sacked Minister for Energy and Minerals Sospeter Muhongo after a report showed he was implicated in mining firms' undeclared mineral sand exports.
The report revealed that the undeclared mineral sand exports led to tax evasion by the mining firms.
Magufuli said the report revealed that mining firms, including Acacia Mining, cheated over mineral sand exports for smelting abroad, making the east African nation to lose millions of U.S. dollars.
The president also dissolved the Tanzania Mineral Audit Agency (TMAA) Board of Directors and suspended the agency's Chief Executive Officer, Dominic Rwekaza, for what he termed as negligence.
