TALKS SET TO RE-OPEN AS DONOR FUNDING DRAGS ON

Finance Minister, Saada Mkuya.

Dar es Salaam. Talks between the government and donors to re-open funding for budget implementation have so far failed to bear fruit despite prolonged negotiations, The Citizen has learnt.

A fresh round of talks will be held in mid-March, according to government sources, even as both parties confirmed there was still no firm commitment that the $474 million (Sh853.2 billion—at the current exchange rate of Sh1,800 per dollar) will be released any time soon.

The donors withheld the funding in budget support pledges for the 2014/15 financial year over the Sh306 billion escrow account scandal.

Representatives of a dozen countries as well as the World Bank are reportedly not impressed by the steps that have to date been taken by the government to bring to book suspects involved in the monumental Tegeta escrow account scandal.

The escrow account saga involves the suspect withdrawal of the billions of shillings from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to pay Pan African Power (PAP), the company that purports to have bought the Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL).

Following Parliament investigation into the scandal late last year, President Jakaya Kikwete shuffled the Cabinet, dropping lands minister Anne Tibaijuka while the erstwhile attorney general Frederick Werema and minister for energy Sospeter Muhongo resigned. The permanent secretary in the ministry for Energy and Minerals, Mr Eliakim Maswi, was suspended to pave the way for investigations.

And at least three senior government officials in the ministries of Lands and Energy as well as the Bank of Tanzania have been charged with receiving hundreds of millions of shillings in questionable payments from Dar es Salaam businessman James Rugemalira, one of the beneficiaries of the payments from the escrow account.

Prof Tibaijuka and former Cabinet ministers Andrew Chenge and William Ngeleja are expected to be grilled from today by the Ethics Commission for accepting “unexplainable” payments from Mr Rugemalira. Prof Tibaijuka and Mr Chenge got Sh1.6 billion each while Mr Ngeleja was paid over Sh40 million. They have all denied any wrong doing.

Yesterday, Finance minister Saada Mkuya confirmed to The Citizen that talks were still in progress to convince the donors to release the budget funds.

“We are looking forward to meeting with the donors again to continue with dialogue but generally they have not released the remaining funds,” she said in a telephone interview.

Several projects and government plans have received a heavy knock since the withholding of the donor funds that equal five per cent of the public expenditure plan for the year.

Among the affected programmes is the biometric voter registration (BVR) that has faltered several times owing to lack of funds. Others include the purchase of drugs for hospitals and payment of higher education students’ loans.

Last week, Ms Sinikka Antila told The Citizen that donor countries had nothing to report as talks with government had not yielded anything new.

“We are dialoguing with the government on the disbursement of the remaining budget support funds. I don’t have anything new to report now,” said the Finnish envoy who is the chair of the Budget Support Group of development partners.

In December last year, the donors released $15 million (Sh25.8 billion) in consideration of the progress made as a result of the work done on the scandal by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Parliament.

So far, a total of $84 million (about 15 per cent) of the budget support funding pledge for this financial year has been handed over to the government. Those currently giving budget support to Tanzania are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the African Development Bank, the European Commission and the World Bank.

The Citizen