An unconvinced public refused to play tonto this time

IF this were a sport, say, soccer, I bet we would have heard ecstatic fans chanting his name. Well, it wasn’t a game but it had all the hallmarks of an enchantment show where they pull rabbits out of a hat and make them disappear again. 

It all started in the third week of July when Kilindi Member of Parliament, Beatrice Shelukindo, alleged in parliament that the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals had asked 20 institutions under the ministry to contribute 50m/- each, which was to be used to facilitate the passing of the ministry’s budget.

Following the allegations, the PS was asked to go and wait for his pay cheque in the comfort of his home as an audit was launched. Not much for a punishment but that’s what happened. 

On the fateful day the allegations were made in Parliament, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda went on record to state that had it been his wish, he would have summarily sacked the PS. It only served to show how serious the allegations were being taken by the government.

An inquiry was ordered and those who were anticipating a bombshell were in for a shock when the verdict returned. Not guilty, case closed! They were cut down to size.

A special audit by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) dismissed claims that David Jairo raised 1bn/- to induce MPs to pass the ministry’s budget, but “only four institutions were asked for contributions” instead of the alleged 20.

The total amount contributed by those institutions was almost 150m/-, not 1bn/-, money which was paid out as subsistence, entertainment and sitting allowances to ministry officials instead of MPs. Another 400 plus million shillings were collected from other ministry departments for that purpose.

Yet something felt amiss in the special audit. Personally I felt lost in the semantics at play in the report. In fact, in its own dysfunctional way the report might have done more damage than good to Mr David Jairo’s person.

We are told that something happened but not to the extent alleged by the MP. We may never know for sure if that in itself solves the equation, because the report still leaves us in the dark as to whether or not whatever it is that happened amounts to malpractice.

We are also not enlightened if asking for contributions from troubled and cash strapped institutions like Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco), which coughed out 40m/- to that effect, is appropriate or not. 

And then there are some innocent questions that are very troubling. If asking for contributions from institutions to ‘facilitate passing of a budget’ is standard procedure, wouldn’t the premier be aware of that?

If, again, it is standard procedure, why should it be shrouded in so much secrecy that the person who is alleged to have leaked out the information is now literally wanted? Nay, more, who got how much and why? At these times of dire and pressing needs, it upsets the stomach to learn that public funds are being used in such an ill-advised fashion.

Jairo was cleared of any wrongdoing but the investigation left so much uncovered ground even the myopic have no difficulty seeing that. So many questions were left unanswered leading to an unconvinced Parliament to quickly decide to form its own committee to look into the matter.

MPs were of the opinion that Tanzanians have once again been taken for a ride. But taking people for a ride is one thing. Gloating over their predicament and mocking them while at it is insulting to the intelligence.  

But it all ends when and where the purported fool refuses to play the part any more. When MPs took offense, they chose not to play along and took matters in their hands because the issue was first brought to light in Parliament. And what do you know? A little innocuous tale has outgrown to a drama of Kafkaesque proportions. 

Just as he was hastily reinstated, President Jakaya Kikwete swiftly directed the PS to remain on leave pending an investigation by MPs; a sign of good things to come.

We are all now left embarrassed on behalf of the overjoyed employees who found the time, in between their busy schedules, to welcome back the PS with so much pomp.

In argumentation, they say, humans reach conclusions through logical reasoning with claims based, soundly or not, on premises.  One can argue all he/she wants but a wrong turn is just a wrong turn, even if it gets you where you are going.

An unhappy public sensed something was not right with whatever that transpired in the ministry, trying to convince them otherwise on premises not so persuasive was like asking them to play the fool. They said no, the buck stops here.

Councilors need additional qualifications

WHEN Parliament endorsed the ministry of energy and minerals’ budget last week, elated legislators took turns to congratulate the minister and his deputy. An ostensibly insurmountable task had been accomplished and accolades seemed to be in order. The sword of Damocles was hanging over their heads by a single horse-hair but they managed to find their way out of the sticky situation just fine.

I have brethren respect and admiration for the two gentlemen but I will stop short of alluding to a spade as an oversized spoon. That would amount to lying to my person and I have no proclivity for doing so, even in extremis.

A fortnight or so ago the same ministry through Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) issued a daring order to lower fuel prices, much to the chagrin of oil marketing firms, only for the decision to be promptly reversed.

The timing couldn’t have been more delicate.  It happened just two days after the budget got a nod and a wink from Parliament. Given the benefit of doubt, to outsiders looking in, it still leaves abundant room for speculation and allusions.

And for the first time in the history of the country, the budget was initially rejected in Parliament. It had to go through a purgatory state for purification before being admitted into heaven. That did not augur well from the beginning for the ministry. I guess sometimes one has to lose an eye to see things clearly.

We ought to thank the august House for being effective in its role of ensuring checks and balances. The sobriety demonstrated by a section of MPs in dealing with matters of national interest is heartening. I have not been around too long to know much from personal experience, but I know that the tide is shifting, and for some good reason too, and that people are weary of the status quo.

Yet the shift does not seem to reflect on the lives of ordinary people. We live in a society where water is a rare commodity instead of a basic service. We are still struggling to find the most undemanding solutions to problems that have since been relegated into oblivion in some parts of the world.

When the government decided to devolve power from the centre to regional authorities in 1972, the idea was to expedite development at grassroots level and ensure that better social services reach all.

Decentralization involved both developing field administrative structures on an area basis in which horizontal links between the field staff of different ministries are at least as important as the vertical lines of authority linking field staff of regional departments.

It also involved decentralizing authority over planning and implementing development programmes to local decision making bodies. But local authorities suffer their own handicap, one being low capacity of grassroots’ leaders on governance principles and lack of adequate mechanisms of information dissemination.

Strong local government is widely regarded as critical to administrative efficiency, citizen participation and regime legitimacy. Where legislators have proved effective in checking policy makers, councilors are yet to make a similar impression in checking those implementing the said policies.

 One fact is that the mainstream media has not shown the same interest in the proceedings of local councils’ sessions as they do with parliament proceedings. Councilors also do not get the same incentives as members of parliament do. One can safely state that their remunerations are not commensurate to their roles.

There is also a huge academic disparity between elected officials in the local setting and council employees. Councilors are therefore looked upon as happy-go-lucky with little understanding of the intricacies of governance.

Officials take advantage of that fact by hitting hard where it hurts most with such niceties like the use of unnecessary technical expressions such as ‘expenditure analysis’ and ‘commitment control’ when explaining the simplest of issues to councilors.

This makes it almost impossible for councilors to take to task public officials gone bad, and there are many one does not even need to take a closer peek. The result is a myriad of unwarranted expenditures on ghost projects while many real projects take too long to complete or do not take off at all. But true to our nature, money is always spent.

So much is spent on meetings to find solutions to a problem than on solving the problem itself. We need very active and knowledgeable individuals to take charge of the oversight role of our councils since we do not have a re‐call mechanism of the elected officials. It is not easy to remove them from offices before the expiry of five years of office tenure.

There is a need to raise the bar here. Councilors need more qualifications than is now required both academically and in terms of experience in matters governance to keep government officials on their toes at all times and maybe we could see some real changes.

Because without local councils that tick, even a heaven sent central government would fail in its pursuit of attaining development goals and our aspirations for a better future will remain just that, aspirations.

We have come to the end of something

IT leaves a lot wanting when a country concurrently faces a power and fuel crisis at a time of relative peace. Surely, we cannot blame God for every one of our woes, not in these times. Mankind has made so many strides over the years that all one needs is enough stash of money and a comfortable living is guaranteed.

When, in this era, your money is not good enough, then you are in some serious trouble. It is either the powers that be, or people who have assumed that role dislike you or the system has plunged into depths of sub optimality beyond recovery.

I do not wish to believe that our institutions have utterly failed. Failed institutions reflect governance failure which in turn amounts to anarchy. As a country we have not come to that. But states do collapse, at times out of mere idiocies.  

But certain individuals have definitely failed us, leading to the current unpleasant state of affairs. Anticipating, averting, and responding to a crisis requires more planning and better organization. Such are the qualities we need in individuals managing the affairs of the state. Yet we keep getting less than we bargain for.

Because those guiding us fail to foresee crises in the making, unsurprisingly they fail to avert them before they occur. Further down the road, responding to crises after they have occurred remains one of the greatest challenges, at times leading to irreversible consequences. This is how we got here today.

Decisions by individuals against expert advice are largely attributed to the failure of organizations such as ATCL, TRL, UDA and others. There has been evidence showing that one of the main reasons public corporations failed was due to government interference, mostly based on political calculations than business acumen.

Such decisions were reached by individuals with little regard for the greater public good. Similar decisions are reached today with similar implications, but it does not seem to bother any. And those who are bothered, unfortunately, are tethered in one way or another. It is as though they've got no incentive to do things right even when it's in their best interest.

This is a product of unaccountability. We fail not because we have to, but because we want to. We fail not because we are incapable of getting goals accomplished, but because we know nothing would happen to us even if we do nothing. Such laxity sires an even more dangerous attitude, indecisiveness!

Since we do not have the practice of holding people accountable for their misdeeds, we never see the need to man up when and where we err. As a result contrition is not known to be a strong disposition amongst my people.

Tanzanians for a while lived like a death row inmate serving two death sentences. We are waiting to be executed [again] after we are dead, never ever to come back! But when reality checks, how can anyone figure that we can survive as a nation with irregular power rationing and unnecessary fuel shortages? 

When it was decided that load shedding was is inevitable, we took it and smiled. But when the government decided to lower fuel prices and a handful firms decided to blatantly defy government orders, most of us were shocked, angered but most importantly, we suffered.

The defiance resulted in fuel shortages, hurting many individuals and businesses in the process. What angered most of us was the fact that someone out there took to long to react. As stated earlier, someone did not anticipate a crisis, thus failed to avert it and the response after the fact was questionable, still is as a matter of fact. 

As for the oil marketing firms that defied compliance orders, where do they get such guts and arrogance? Flagrant disregard of state orders is no trivial matter. This goes to show that concerned firms do not feel responsible for their actions despite far-reaching consequences and repercussions. They are least concerned about the general welfare of Tanzanians. And they probably learnt from the best!

There is more than what meets the eye here. If my take on things mattered I would say we can do without them. There are many more where they came from. It is time for change and we could always start afresh. Let us start by making sure that anyone who wants to do business here understands that he is dealing with a serious lot, not just a bunch of buffoons and lame ducks.

We need to take back our lost dignity and respect inasmuch as we are poor. Even sweet dreams come to an end. Recent events are a clear sign of the times; we have come to the end of something. But it wouldn't kill if we look at it as a prospect for a new beginning.