Tanzania: Call for single body to decongest Dar traffic

Deputy Chairperson Anne Kilango Malecela

The parliamentary infrastructure committee has proposed the establishment of single authority to supervise implementation of projects aimed at reducing traffic congestion in Dar es Salaam, which has been costing the nation 1.44trn/- annually.

Reading the committee’s recommendations on the budget estimates for the Ministry of Works for the financial year 2011/2012 amounting to 1,496,417,233,000/- the Deputy Chairperson Anne Kilango Malecela said the existence of many stakeholders on transportation issues pose difficulties in implementing the projects because each one has their own working plan.

She cited the Dar es Salaam City Commission of 1996-2000 which supervised the entire city.

She said that the problem of having many stakeholders in transport issues has been observed in the case of Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit project which is under Prime Minister’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Governments, the government local authorities, regional secretariat, Surface and Marine Transport Authority (Sumatra) and Tanzania National Roads Agency.

"It is difficult to arrive at decisions because each authority has its own work plan, leading to bureaucracy in implementing the project,” Malecela said.

She cited neighbouring Kenya saying that by recognising the importance of Nairobi city to the economy of its country the government formed special ministry to supervise the entire city.

“It is good for the government of Tanzania to take into account the importance of Dar es Salaam city to the economy of the country,” she noted.

She explained that Dar was the image of the country because most of the government activities were conducted in the city.

Malecela said over 84 per cent of the domestic revenue was obtained from Dar es Salaam.

She said according to report issued by DART, the country loses 4bn/- per day due to traffic congestions in Dar es Salaam.

She said the projects under implementation included improving feeder roads, constructing fly-overs and DART among others.

The committee proposed reduction of unnecessary expenditure on vehicles used by government officials to support the road fund.

Malecela said her committee conducted a research and discovered that for the 2011/2012 budget over 74bn/- has been set aside for purchasing fuel and lubricants and maintenance of government vehicles.

Tabling his budget estimates for the financial year 2011/2010 Works Minister John Magufuli asked the Parliament to endorse 245,440,294,000/- for recurrent expenditure and 1,250,976,746,000/- for implementing development projects.

He said the government has set aside 5,262,525,200/- for the construction of residential houses for leaders and other civil servants.

He mentioned some of the roads to be constructed at tarmac level this year as Wazo Hill- Bagamoyo – Msata, New Bagamoyo Road, Manyoni-Itigi- Tabora and the Dodoma University road.

Meanwhile, opposition camp in parliament has asked the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct special audit on the Tanzania National Roads Agency (Tanroads) specifically on 2009/10 fiscal year following the contradictory reports on the actual debts it owes contractors.

Reading his alternative budget speech for the Works Ministry, Shadow Minister Salvatory Machemli said that there has been a huge increase of the debt that Tanroads owed contractors.

He said the mid term Evaluation of the road transport sector policy support programme for June 2011 by EU auditors found that the debt increased from USD 30 million to USD 300 million in nine months.

He said according to Tanroads report of 2009/10 the debt owed to contractors and consultants was 43,183 billion/- equivalents to USD 31.8 million.

Machemli said that according to the quarterly report of December 31st last year, the government debt to contractors was 321,581 billion/- equivalents to USD 224.9 million while accumulated debts for compensation amounted to USD 49,605 billion/-.

“It is astonishing that when the government was asked by EU auditors it increased the debt amount to 454.2bn/-in December 2010 and by March 2011 it had paid a total of 242.8bn/- from the Roads Fund,” Machemli said.

The report  issued by Tanroads Director General on May 19th this year certified that financial claims channelled to the ministry on January was 454bn/- an amount higher than the one reported in March.

“This reflects weaknesses on the part of the ministry and Tanroads. How can a single government provide different reports on the same thing?” Machemli questioned.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN