TANZANIA: LANDMARK DECISION

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
The Citizen TeamDar es Salaam
MPs turned the heat on the Government in Parliament yesterday, resolving that TICTS contract extension be scrapped and the railway concession deal reviewed as part of wide-ranging measures to curb the looting of public resources.
A highly charged House condemned current and past high-level corruption, during debate on four private motions.
It was another historic day as Speaker Samuel Sitta allowed the members to dissect the deals sealed during the Benjamin Mkapa administration and the current government, and which have cost the country billions of shillings.
Kwela MP Chrissant Mzindakaya set the ball rolling by moving his private member's motion, detailing how the lucrative foreign-dominated hunting sector was not benefiting Tanzanians. He said that from professional and tourist hunting alone, the Government losses about Sh76.8 billion ($60 million) in low fees paid by the operators and corruption by wildlife officials.
In scenes reminiscent of the February session during which a report tabled by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Richmond Company scandal led to the resignation of Mr Edward Lowassa as Prime Minister alongside Cabinet minister Nizar Karamagi and Ibrahim Msabaha, the MPs looked determined to get to the bottom of the mega scandals.
They fiercely debated the private members' motions on the hunting industry, and Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) in the morning session, and concluded in the evening with the Tanzania International Containers Terminal (TICTS) and the controversial sale of government houses. The MPs said the public servants who were allocated the houses but have not completed paying for them should clear the balances or have them repossessed. Some 7,921 houses were sold in 2002 for Sh59.1 billion, but only 29.1 billion has been paid while more than half (Sh30.4 billion) has not been paid. Moving the motion on the sale of the houses, CCM lawmaker Aloyce Kimario said it was a pity that the decision had been made without first building others.
"It was as if the third phase government thought it was going to be the last government in this country. Those houses were a national resource and the property of all Tanzanians not just the few civil servants," he said. Apparently alarmed by the mega scandals-Richmond, EPA, Twin Towers, Meremeta Gold, which together have cost the taxpayers' about Sh1.25 trillion ($1billion), the angry MPs told all the corrupt leaders and other looters to repent. They also urged the Government to immediately suspend the controversial TICTS contract, which gave the latter an extension to 2015 instead of the original expiry period scheduled in 2010.
Parliament was stunned to hear that the Indian firm, RITES, which was awarded a tender to manage Tanzania Railways Corporation, borrowed $77 million to finance the project but only 10per cent of the money had been invested in the project. In the evening sitting, the MPs debated TICTS, which was dubiously given an extension to run the container section at Dar es Salaam Port, contrary to the National Procurement Act of 2004. But drama unfolded in the House, when one of the TICTS shareholders, former minister Karamagi rose to defend the company, arguing that the extension was approved by the Cabinet in June 2005.
Mr Karamagi, who resigned this year after being implicated in Richmond scandal, was told by Speaker Sitta to declare his interest first, as required by the House's standing orders. "I am the chairman of TICTS and also the owner of one of the companies that partnered with an international firm to run this business," Mr Karamagi told the attentive House in responding to Speaker's order.
And Speaker Sitta responded: "You may now continue, Honourable Karamagi." Mr Karamagi said his company won the tender, denying any wrongdoing, but his efforts came to nought as the majority of MPs from his own party, CCM, said the deal was illegal and should be nullified. Ms Anna Abdullah of CCM demanded to know whether Mr Karamagi had any evidence to prove before Parliament that the Cabinet approved "the dubious extension".
Following the situation, Mr Karamagi was ordered to present his evidence today before 12pm, whereby failure to that he would taken to task for issuing false statements' in the parliament.