FORMER senior official with the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority, Joseph Ngiloi, has appealed to the Court of Appeal to challenge the payment of the 50m/- awarded to him as damages by the High Court, for illegal and premature retirement.
In his appeal, Ngiloi, who was Senior Airworthiness Surveyor Grade One before his controversial retirement, is asking the Appellate Court to quash the decision by then High Court Judge, William Mandia, on August 13, 2008.
He is also asking for orders of payment of 1.092bn/- being loss of salary, to the date of compulsory retirement, special and general damages and costs of the appeal.
Mr Ngiloi was appointed by the president on June 1, 1987 to the post of Senior Airworthiness Surveyor Grade One in the Directorate of Civil Aviation with the then Ministry of Communication and Transport.
Following satisfactory performance, the president confirmed him on January 21, 1992.
He later underwent training on Aircraft Engineering in India, Europe, United States, Holland and Ethiopia and was the most trained in the field.
Surprisingly, on June 29, 1999, he was unlawfully and prematurely retired purportedly in the public interest.
According to him, such retirement was flawed as it disregarded the principle of first in, last out, lacked transparency, openness and competitiveness and that the government did not take into consideration that he was the most qualified engineer within the authority.
He filed a suit to challenge such retirement.
On August 13, 2008, Judge Mandia declared his retirement null and void because the ministry's Deputy Permanent Secretary had no powers to terminate Mr Ngiloi as he was a presidential appointee.
The court awarded him 50m/- in damages.
In the process of executing the court's decree, Mr Ngiloi discovered that the court wrongly said that he had already gone past his age of retirement.
Such holding, he said, affected the quantum of damages awarded to him.
When receiving and recording the testimony by Ngiloi on September 20, 2006, the judge recorded two different ages, indicating that he was 53 years and 60 years at the same time.
But in his findings, the judge chose the wrong age of 60 years hence denying him all other claims.
In the memorandum of appeal, Ngiloi states that the trial judge erred in law and fact by finding that he had reached the age of compulsory retirement and, hence, failed to award loss of salary from the date of termination to the date of compulsory retirement.
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