Tanzania: Govt Promises New Constitution By 2015

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Damas Kanyabwoya

23 June 2011

Dodoma — Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda yesterday said the government was committed to ensuring a new Constitution is in place before 2015.Tabling budget proposals for his office in Parliament, Mr Pinda said the government would see to it that the process of writing the Constitution was trouble-free.”The formulation of the Constitution Review Bill is going on, and I urge Tanzanians to come forward to air their views on the new Constitution once the Bill is ready,” he said.

He cautioned politicians against misleading the people on the new Constitution for their selfish interests.

Mr Pinda asked Parliament to approve Sh3.4 trillion for recurrent and development expenditure for the PMO, Regional Administration and Local Governments (RALG) ministry and local authorities for the new financial year starting on July 1. This is about 25 per cent of the government’s Sh13.5 trillion budget.

The largest chunk of the money – Sh2.937 trillion – will go to cover both recurrent and development expenditures of local government authorities.About Sh197.166 billion will be for development and recurrent expenditure of the PMO and its departments, Sh112.228 billion will cover development and recurrent expenditure of RALG and its departments, while Sh158.902 billion will cover both development and recurrent expenditure for regional commissioners’ offices.

Mr Pinda also requested the approval of Sh80.798 billion for Parliament’s budget for the 2011/12 financial year.

He said the process to create new regional administration areas was at an advanced stage, adding that the borders of the new regions of Simiyu, Katavi, Njombe and Geita had already been demarcated.

About Sh16.556 billion has been set aside for vehicle repairs in the PMO and its institutions, an allocation MPs described as unnecessary.Tabling the views of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Constitution, Justice and Governance on the PMO estimates, Ms Pindi Chana (Special Seats-CCM) urged the Prime Minister to take immediate steps to reduce such unwarranted expenditure.

She said the best solution was to re-introduce state garages where all government vehicles would be serviced and repaired under close monitoring.”The amount allocated for repairs of government vehicles is too much for such a poor nation like Tanzania to afford.

The time has come for the re-introduction of the old system of government garages to cut costs,” said Ms Chana, who chairs the committee. She said the committee had established that a lot of money was wasted by government ministries, departments and institutions on pay-TV subscription, as well as purchasing of imported furniture. This, she said, should be reviewed to save public financial resources.

Ms Chana urged the government to speed up the process of shifting to the new capital, Dodoma, by improving the infrastructure and services in the municipality.

When winding up debate on the Budget Speech this week, Finance and Economic Affairs minister Mustafa Mkulo said the funds needed to operationalise the new regions were included in the Treasury vote.

“Once these new regions are established the money will be shifted from the Treasury to the regional treasuries,” Mr Mkulo told Parliament on Tuesday.

The government also rescinded from its decision to create 21 districts, and will instead create 19 districts. This is because of some “unresolved” issues pertaining to the creation of Ulyankulu District as well as division of Kahama District into two districts in Tabora and Shinyanga regions.

Kahama District will not be divided. Instead, two councils of Msalala and Ushetu, as well as the town council of Kahama, will be created,” Mr Pinda said.

Plans to create Ulyankulu District have also been shelved, and the government will instead create Kaliua District in Shinyanga Region.The 19 districts as well as 34 sub-divisions will be created after final consultations with the people.

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