3.6bn/- used for Mara hospital projects

ABOUT 3.6bn/- has been issued for the implementation of Mara Regional Hospital projects in the financial years 2011/12 and 2013/14.


The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, Mr Aggrey Mwanri, said 256,173,000/- was spent on compensations and 3,365,939,000/- was spent on construction.


He said that in 2014/15 the government has set aside 2.2bn/- and already the region has been given 287,145,000/- to continue construction work at the hospital.


The Deputy Minister said that preparations to get a contractor for the second phase of the project is still on, and the government will be setting aside funds as they are available.


Mr Mwanri was responding to a question by Musoma Urban MP (Chadema), Mr Josephat Nyerere, who wanted to know if the government will fund to complete implementation of the projects.


Mr Nyerere also questioned the government’s plans to employ the Public Private Partnership (PPP) so that Appollo Hospital and other private partners be involved.


Mr Mwanri said that the issue of PPP is among the government’s policies in implementing developmental projects and already it has started involving the private sector in various education and health projects.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the government has managed to build 249 hospitals, 716 health centres and 5,960 dispensaries countrywide.

MPs decry ‘Escrow’ report spill

Led by nominated MP James Mbatia, legislators termed it as intrusion of Parliamentary powers and thus in contravention of Parliamentary Powers, Rights and Privileges Act No.3 of 1988 Soon after the morning Questions-and-Answers session, Mr Mbatia raised the matter that had led to the weekend’s arrest of the suspect who was found with the documents.

Mr Mbatia said the suspect was arrested on Sunday following a complaint filed by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Dr Thomas Kashilila.

The suspect was found with three different documents, two of which bore the official rubber stamp of the office of the Clerk. The other one did not have any stamp.

Mr Mbatia called on the Speaker, Ms Anna Makinda, to first suspend the day’s Bunge activities to open the floor to debate on the matter, including how the documents had left the Parliament’s precincts.

Ms Makinda intervened saying it was not yet clear how the suspect acquired the said documents, but that it would be more procedural if the House left Police to first investigate the matter.

“Discussing it here before police conclude the investigations is not procedural. They are grilling the suspect, with intention to make him say where he got the documents.

Whoever is found culpable will be held accountable even if they are from my office,’’ she said.

Mr Mbatia told the House that some opposition MPs had alerted Parliament that some people were circulating documents plucked from the CAG report that is due for tabling starting tomorrow.

According to the information lodged with the clerk, the documents being circulated were plucked from pages 57,58 and 59 of the CAG report.

The matter lingered on with Mr Tundu Lissu (Singida Rural-Chadema), saying it was important to debate the issue yesterday to clear the confusion that had been brought about by the matter.

But the Speaker stuck to her guns, stressing that discussing a matter that was already under investigation was not procedural, further asking the legislators to be patient as the PAC report on the CAG –IPTL content would be officially tabled for discussion starting tomorrow (Wednesday).

Ms Makinda also said MPs will be given contents of the report prior to its tabling by the Public Accounts Committee. She made this particular ruling following the concern raised by Simanjiro MP (CCM) Christopher Ole Sendeka that the report’s content may leave the MPs half informed if they do not get it prior to the debate -- to read it and broadly reflect on its content.

It is understood that legislators will discuss the report on the escrow account on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The IPTL saga revolves around a contestable withdrawal from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) of a whopping 306bn/- in taxpayer money that was shared among a few individuals.

It had been withdrawn to facilitate the sale of Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) to Pan Africa Power Solutions (PAP).

On Thursday, Kigoma North MP (Chadema), Mr Zitto Kabwe, who chairs PAC, said his team was ready to table the report for discussion and action by the National Assembly after Wednesday’s interrogation of the CAG, PCCB and TRA chiefs.

The National Assembly insisted that the IPTL’s escrow account report by the CAG will be discussed starting tomorrow after the PAC had made its statement.

State’s financial support to farming reaches 1tri/-

TANZANIA has stepped up the state’s financial support to the agriculture sector, which at the moment is clocking 1 trillion/-, according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor, Professor Benno Ndulu.

“Although it is still low, the share of lending to agriculture to total lending to private sector by the banks has increased from the average 9.6 per cent in 2008 to nearly 12 per cent by the end of 2013, against the backdrop of rapidly expanding total credit to the private sector,” stated Prof Ndulu.

Speaking at the ongoing 17th Conference of Financial Institutions (COFI) taking place at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) here, the central bank chief pointed out that in absolute terms, credit to agriculture increased from an average 700 billion/- in 2008 to over one trillion/- at the end of last year.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Financing Agriculture and Agribusiness in Tanzania: Challenges and Opportunities’ and reflects the need to increase financial resources to agriculture, which was stated during the event to be the major activity of the majority of Tanzanians.

To that effect, therefore, Governor Ndulu pointed out that the government has already made significant strides in providing financing to medium and large-scale agriculture through guarantee schemes operated by the BoT and ‘Kilimo Kwanza’ initiatives.

“Local financial institutions have also played a sizeable role in this endeavour,” he noted, adding that more efforts were being made to ensure that more grants are pumped into the farmers’ coffers to boost productivity.

The Vice-President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, officially opened the conference and stated that the importance of agriculture cannot be underestimated on that the sector accounts for 30 per cent of export earnings and about 25 per cent of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

“And when looked in real terms, the sector provides backward and forward sectoral linkages and is key in controlling inflation, because food contributes about 44 per cent of the total consumer’s expenditures,” pointed out Dr Bilal.

COFI is a biennial forum that was created by the BoT in 1980.






The conferences bring together heads of financial institutions and other stakeholders to exchange views and experiences on matters related and relevant to the financial system and the country’s economy.