TPDC minimum salary set for Sh5.4m

 

By Ludger Kasumuni,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• INCREMENT: Middle level cadres and managers will be paid between Sh12.6 million to Sh28 million, if the proposals are approved
• Documents seen by The Citizen show that TPDC wants its lowest paid office attendants and drivers to earn Sh5.4 million and the topmost CEO Sh36 million every month

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is proposing new salaries and allowances that would make even its middle-level employees the envy of some of the highest remunerated Tanzanian chief executive officers.

Documents seen by The Citizen show that TPDC wants its lowest paid office attendants and drivers to earn Sh5.4 million and the topmost CEO Sh36 million every month.

Middle level cadres and managers will be paid between Sh12.6 million to Sh28 million, if the proposals filed with the Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (Ewura) are approved.
Besides than the ceiling breaking salaries, the public agency has budgeted billions of shillings in staff bonuses, sitting, training, responsibility and utility, mileage, insurance allowances and many more perks for the employees who would become the highest paid public workers in the country. 

 TPDC filed the proposals in September under a business plan for the processing and transportation of liquefied gas from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam. The agency has defended the perks on grounds that they were applicable in the lucrative gas and oil sector.

But the proposals have been strongly objected to by the Ewura Consumer Consultative Council that has termed the payments “outrageous and unrealistic.”

The council has filed its objection with Ewura too as required under law to allow for public consultations. It has argued that the plan by TPDC would lead to a tariff dispute as the unchecked expenses are likely to result in a higher and expensive tariff out of reach for a majority Tanzanians and local businesses.

The expenditure plan would raise suspicions as the open public forums to discuss the tariff proposal by TPDC were not publicized as others before it and the addendums containing the huge perks were not circulated to stakeholders.

 Yesterday, The Citizen learnt that the TPDC plan was raising quite some concern in both public and private sector circles. It was being viewed as an example of public gluttony that could sabotage benefits that may accrue to the larger public from the gas resource.

Efforts to contact the management to shed more light were fruitless by the time of filing this report.    

Speaking to The Citizen, Ewura communications manager, Mr Titus Kaguo, said the hearing session for the application was conducted earlier this month, and that the regulator was still working on the financial implication of the proposals before making a decision.

In the TPDC letter signed by its marketing director Ms Joyce Kisamo, TPDC requests the regulator to approve a tariff of  $4.178/mmBtu (Sh714/mmBtu). In the letter dated September 1, TPDC indicates that the planned commencement of the project for natural gas transportation and processing is January 1, 2015.
In its application, TPDC proposes hefty allowances to board members and employees on special duties at a minimum annual budget of Sh150 million and a maximum of Sh3 billion.

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/TPDC-minimum-salary-set-for-Sh5-4m/-/1840392/2559364/-/item/1/-/ommpafz/-/index.html 

• mujwahuki • 3 hours ago

  Tanzanian salaries were suppressed for a very long time to the extent that TPDC proposal is seen to be on the much higher side. During the first phase government, most of the public services were free (education, hospitals, etc) or at a subsidized cost. Therefore salaries were sufficient to feed the family and meet all necessary house amenities with only one member of the family working - mostly the father.
  Come cost sharing, working people were made to pay for these services without corresponding adjustment of their salaries, when you add on inflation due to the economy mismanagement, working people's lives (especially those who don't have other options like travelling and meeting allowances) became miserable, then and now!!
  Phases that followed did very little to address this problem, which affected even those in small scale agriculture - the majority. That's why poverty levels is still worsening in the country! Even private sector did not bring much improvement because the base was fundamentally misleading!
  Today. most civil servants are paid lowly that they make up the difference either by loads of allowances (travelling and off-duty-station works) or by finding some leakages in the system, hence endemic corruption in the country.
  We need a government, that will sit down and do an overhaul of the whole system if we want a permanent positive peace in this country, let not only TPDC enjoy the windfall gain from our natural resources, but let the enlarged cake benefit all the offspring of Mother Tanzania!!
  

  
  

  George • 3 hours ago

  THIS IS DAY LIGHT ROBBERY - PURE AND SIMPLE - LEGALIZED ROBBERY
  

  
  

  Luambano I.A • an hour ago

  The economy of Tanzania cannot pay such salaries. This is outright nonsense and should not be entertained. We should use the judiciary and other organs to block this. This fortune from gas and other natural resources as well as any other economic fields which you term "lucrative" should benefit Tanzanians as a whole. That must be the policy. There are so many unemployed experts who can take over immediately at a much lower, normal salary.
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  Alex Kakala • 3 hours ago

  This is what Muhong has been telling Tanzania citizen that at TPDC and ministry they are very professional , no corruption!
  Who appointed this incompetent Kissamo to such post? It seems at TPDC there is no professionalism, just through I know you get my family member a position.
  Sad all these unfolding incompetence for Tanzania citizen who were having high expectation with oil and gas resources.
  It is either all Tanzania citizen stand up and take the bull by the horn, or sit and crying like cats and let them squander the national economic security assets.