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MPs` seminar breaks up over Richmond Report
2008-02-04 09:01:50
By Angel Navuri, Dodoma
A members of Parliament seminar intended to discuss the proposed Electricity and Petroleum Supply bills went up in smoke yesterday, as MPs demanded to debate the Richmond Report first.
Speaking during a seminar intended to shed light on the two pending Bills, the lawmakers said they would not dwell on the proposed laws until Richmond Report had been availed to them.
The seminar was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.
MP for Iramba West Juma Hassan Kilimbah said: ``We need to know what the Richmond Report contains. Any discussion on these bills will be meaningless as we may overlook some sensitive issues.``
Last year, the National Assembly formed a select committee to investigate circumstances that led the government to enter into a contract with Richmond Development Corporation for generating power in 2006.
The report has already been submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly Samwel Sitta.
It is widely expected that the probe committee’s findings will be tabled during the on-going Bunge session.
Raphael Chegeni (Busega) said what the ministry of Energy and Minerals did by contracting Richmond to generate power was a disgrace to the nation, adding: ``It made the country look like an irresponsible institution.``
``We should not allow Parliament to become a rubber stamp institution because the wananchi will regard us as failures,`` said Chegeni.
On the privatization of the Tanzania Electricity Supply
Company (Tanesco), Chegeni said the government should tell the wananchi why the power utility had failed to deliver.
He said most of the contracts signed by the ministry had backfired, adding, `The ministry has failed to give convincing explanations as to the causes of the failures.``
Anna Abdallah (Special Seats) blamed Tanesco for hiking power tariffs, saying the move was insensitive to low income earners` plight.
``Tanesco is currently lying in the intensive care unit. Privatizing it will worsen the situation, so it is better to leave it as it is,`` said Abdallah.
Job Ndugai (Kongwa) said the memorandum of understanding signed between the ministry and investors was a major problem which the ministry had failed to highlight in the two bills.
``Tanesco is a business institution. We don`t expect it to always seek for government subsidy or to hike charges to compensate losses it has incurred. The investment drive of Tanesco is very little,`` Ndugai said.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Anna Makinda said that the presentation done by Tanesco wasn`t detailed enough to convince the MPs.
``l was just wondering about the presentation because it wasn`t detailed enough. It looks as if they had not done their homework,`` she said.
Abdalla Kigoda (Handeni) said the government had made a lot of mistakes in signing contracts with power generating companies as did it not take the consequences into account.
``We will not repeat the past mistakes again until the Richmond Report is tabled,`` said Kigoda.
Karatu MP Wilbrod Slaa said Tanesco lacked a power master plan, saying that it was a setback for such an institution to operate without a plan.
Dr Slaa said that in 2006, he had requested the ministry of Energy and Minerals to give out a power master plan.
He said the ministry had promised to deliver it but failed to fulfill the promise.
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