BY ABDALLAH BAWAZIR
29th December 2013
Political pundits now question why appointing authorities rely on pressure from the House to make costly changes, which reflect negatively on governance as a whole.
Analysts who talked to The Guardian on Sunday this week had almost the same message that President Jakaya Kikwete should now use the opportunity to clean his cabinet once and for all before the next general elections.
This is the third major cabinet reshuffle since the fourth phase government came into office in 2005.
This is the third major cabinet reshuffle since the fourth phase government came into office in 2005.
In a matter of just three days from Wednesday 6th to Friday 8th February 2008, a report by the parliamentary select committee investigating the controversial contract between the government and Richmond Development Co. to generate power was presented to the House.
Then on Thursday, Prime Minister Edward Lowassa tendered his resignation, and with the premier aside, a domino effect followed when other ministers mentioned in the report started to fall on their swords.
In April 2012 six out of eight cabinet ministers criticized by MPs and implicated in a report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), along with two deputy ministers lost their positions in a new cabinet line up.
University of Dar es Salaam’s Political Science lecturer, Mr Bashiru Ally blames lack of specific law to control appointment and firing of ministers. He said poor governance has also contributed to the situation.
“We should not be satisfied with the resignations of ministers. It is no longer enough just to resign or taking accused people to court; we need more than individual replacement. We need to hold the ruling political party accountable,” said Mr. Bashiru.
According to the lecturer, the new constitution should address such challenges by stipulating clearly how cabinet members should be appointed.
“In case we will not get the new constitution by 2015, when a new government will take office, let the challenge be a lesson when forming the new cabinet,” he said.
However he said the president should now bring in people who can really serve to the end of his term in office.
The president is expected to announce a wider cabinet reshuffle soon following growing criticism of the performance of other key members of his government, with more ministers likely to lose their jobs.
Investors have long complained that graft is one of the main reasons for the high cost of doing business in Tanzania, which has made big discoveries of natural gas off its southern coast.
Prof Mwesiga Baregu attributes the frequent reshuffles to divergence in leadership ways practiced by the previous regimes, accusing the current government of playing too much politics.
“It is now evident that political interests should not overrule everything when appointing government officials, and if the appointing authority fails to refrain from this, we will have a repeat before 2015,” he cautioned.
The St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) senior academician noted that the president should use this opportunity to drop the ‘burdensome’ ministers, recently listed by the ruling party.
Slightly over a month back, CCM secretariat officials came out in public to claim that some of those in ministerial posts have turned out to be a burden, even naming them by name, suggesting that president should replace them for poor performance.
The president's latest intervention against officials seen to be abusing their positions could further strengthen his hand ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2015.
"The focus will now turn towards the prime minister ...who has also been criticised, with opposition party members calling for his removal,” Prof. Baregu noted.
Dr. Benson Bana of the University of Dar es Salaam argues that the president should go for ministers outside Parliament, saying this will stop them being accountable to the ruling party directly.
He also noted that frequent reshuffles will haunt the government for as long as those appointed to those positions will remain afraid of any firing sooner or later.
“Some ministers do not even understand their ministries. They are posted to a new office but before they start coping and begin to perform, they are fired or transferred, often due to mistakes of other officials in the ministry,” the lecturer intoned.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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