Mabadiliko ya Makatibu wakuu

Saturday, 29 November 2008

KIKWETE AFANYA MABADILIKO (MAKATIBU WAKUU)

Rais Jakaya Kikwete amefanya uteuzi wa makatibu wakuu wapya, kuhamisha wengine na kuteua manaibu katibu wakuu wapya. Kwa sasa, Mgonja ambaye yuko katika likizo ya kustaafu, amestaafu sambamba na makatibu wakuu wengine watatu na Naibu Katibu Mkuu mmoja kati ya Agosti na Novemba mwaka huu. Katibu Mkuu Kiongozi Philemon Luhanjo katika taarifa yake Dar es Salaam jana, aliwataja wastaafu wengine ni Katibu Mkuu, Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu Vincent Mrisho, Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Ulinzi na Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, Abel Mwaisumo, Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Ushirikiano wa Afrika Mashariki, Bakari Mahiza na Naibu Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa, Balozi Charles Sanga. Luhanjo alisema kutokana na kustaafu kwa makatibu wakuu na Naibu Katibu Mkuu huyo, Rais Kikwete amefanya uteuzi na uhamisho wa makatibu wakuu na baadhi ya manaibu makatibu wakuu. Aliwataja makatibu wakuu wapya ambao wote walikuwa ni manaibu katibu mkuu ni Ramadhani Khijjah anayemrithi Mgonja, awali akiwa Naibu Katibu Mkuu Hazina. Wengine ni Dk. Florens Turuka anayekuwa Katibu Mkuu wa Wizara ya Habari, Utamaduni na Michezo, akitokea Wizara ya Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko; Joyce Mapunjo anayekwenda Wizara ya Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko, akitokea Maendeleo ya Miundombinu na Andrew Nyumayo kusimamia Wizara ya Ulinzi na Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, akitokea Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu. Aliwataja Manaibu Katibu Wakuu wapya kuwa ni Dk. Phillip Mpango (Wizara ya Fedha na Uchumi) ambaye awali alikuwa Msaidizi wa Rais (Uchumi)-Ikulu, Selestine Gesimba (Wizara ya Elimu na Mafunzo ya Ufundi), akitokea Mkurugenzi wa Sera na Mipango ya Wizara ya Mawasiliano, Sayansi na Teknolojia. Mwingine ni Seti Kamuhanda anayekwenda Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa. Awali alikuwa Msaidizi wa Rais (Hotuba) Ikulu; na kabla ya hapo, alikuwa Mhariri Mtendaji wa Kampuni ya Magazeti ya Serikali (TSN), inayochapisha Daily News, Sunday News, HabariLeo na HabariLeo Jumapili. Katika uhamisho huo, Luhanjo aliwataja waliohamishwa na sehemu wanazotoka na wizara walizopangiwa katika mabano kuwa Peniel Lyimo (Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu kutoka Kilimo, Chakula na Ushirika); Dk. Ladislaus Komba (Maliasili na Utalii kutoka Kazi, Ajira na Maendeleo ya Vijana) na Kijazi Mtengwa (Wizara ya Kazi, Ajira na Maendeleo ya Vijana kutoka Habari, Utamaduni na Michezo. Wengine ni Mohammed Muya (Kilimo, Chakula na Ushirika kutoka Mambo ya Ndani; Patrick Rutabanzibwa (Mambo ya Ndani kutoka Maji na Umwagiliaji); Dk. Stergomena Tax (Ushirikiano wa Afrika Mashariki kutoka Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko); Wilson Mukama (Maji na Umwagiliaji kutoka Afya na Ustawi wa Jamii); na Blandina Nyoni (Afya na Ustawi wa Jamii kutoka Maliasili na Utalii). Aidha, Luhanjo alisema rais amemhamisha Naibu Katibu Mkuu Fanuel Mbonde kutoka Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu (Tamisemi) kwenda Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu. Katibu Mkuu Kiongozi alisema uteuzi wa makatibu wakuu na manaibu katibu wakuu hao unaanza mara moja.
(Source - Colleague's blog)

Mramba-It didn't have to come to this

Yesterday, a bombshell of political news shook the country: Basil Mramba, an iconic respected MP and former minister of various portfolios appeared in court (along with another former minister called Yona) charged with several counts of abusing office.
Now, Mramba earned much respect as a leader who delivered. Perhaps his most outstanding performance was that of being the first executive of the Small Industries Development Organization, an institution that grew and achieved a lot.

How did it happen? How would a man of Mramba's moral standing be caught in such a quangmire, have his systematically built reputation undone?

The likely explanation is, there seemed such confidence of untouchables who were much aware that they were not doing the right, moral thing - we all do have conscience, don't we? Here, then, we had my hero, Mramba, loyally supporting the boss man, Mkapa, who was termed, albeit wrongly by Father of Nation "Mr Clean". And getting reassured that nothing would go wrong.
It didn't have to come to the scenes above, that Kisutu court scenario, the big man himself sitting on a hard bench, not very different from the ones they sit willingly once per week every Sunday morning), and the cheering masses ("rubbering crowd" as O Henry would put it).

Did Mramba benefit financially from this abuse of office activities he is being charged with? Maybe, maybe not, but definitely he knew he was abusing power. What he was (wrongly) sure of was, he might be prosecuted for his actions.

The Alex Stewart Assayers scenario that was central to the accusations against Mramba as Financial Minister during Mkapa (at-CHOOOO!) era was largely unknown to the public. But the cheering crowds in the picture above most likely are those who remember Mramba reacting to protestations about Tz, a poor country, spending lots of foreign exchange to procure a totally unnecessary new presidential jet, publicly announcing a new jet for President would be bought no-matter what, even if it would lead to people eating grass. The jet deal, it would be found out later, was badly weighted, likely corrupt--that one and air traffic control radar.

Mramba-It didn't have to come to this.

This is what Africa needs

Why donors fear Kagame's war on graft


The Botswana Gazette

13.04.2005

http://www.gazette.bw/tbg_buhead2.htm

by Andrew M. Mwenda

  

Last week I was in Kigali, this time at the heels of a cabinet decision to impound all luxurious four wheel drive vehicles bought at government expense and driven by ministers, security and military chiefs, foreign experts and their local handlers. In a morning crackdown, all the big men and women of this republic woke up to find that police constables along the main roads were stopping and taking away their vehicles and leaving them to walk to office.

The international donor community, known all over Africa for its corrupt and profligate life styles which they indulge in the name of fighting poverty, was this time caught with their pants down. They claim to fight poverty while riding in luxurious four-wheel drive vehicles, sitting in opulently furnished offices, earning obscene salaries and living in executive mansions. In a bold act of defiance, Rwanda impounded even those vehicles belonging to donor projects. After cleaning his own government of corruption, he has now taken on the profligacy of the international aid industry and its experts are now scared.

In a discussion with President Paul Kagame, he told me that he had looked at some of the "poverty reduction" projects and they smelt bad. "There are projects here worth only $5m and when I looked at their expenses, I found that $1m was going into buying these cars, each one of them at $70,000.

Another $1m goes to buy office furniture, more $1m for meetings and entertainment, and yet another $1m as salaries for technical experts, leaving only $1m for the actual expenditure on a poverty reducing activity. Is this the way to fight poverty?" he asked as I shifted with glee in my chair.

Already, the government is auctioning these vehicles and so far has gotten over $3m from the sales. Mr Kagame has now issued a new directive, saying government should not purchase cars for its officials with more than 2,500 cc. But there is more: the government has placed a ceiling on mobile telephone expenses for all its ministers, military and security chiefs to 50,000 Rwanda Francs (Shs150, 000), and also ordered MTN Rwanda to cut off their international roaming access.

The directive also stops the holding of workshops, seminars and conferences on poverty reduction in posh hotels like the Intercontinental, Mille Collins etc, insisting they should be in government owned buildings at no cost. The order also requires all government ministries; departments and agencies to move from privately owned buildings where they pay high rents to government owned buildings.

I told Kagame that whereas some of the most highly skilled Africans are going to Europe and North=2 0America to clean streets and toilets, our development partners send us Œtechnical experts on these projects at individual monthly salaries of between $10,000 and $20,000, a salary that could pay 12 Africans of better training and experience and save this continent from severe brain drain. In fact, most of these so-called experts are a miserable, career-stranded lot in their own countries, but are dumped in Africa and other poor countries through foreign aid protocols.

Donors never shy from lecturing our governments on fiscal frugality, yet their aid driven projects are the most profligate. Of total project aid to Uganda's ministry of Health, 93 percent of it goes into technical assistance (i.e. salaries and allowances for the experts) and overheads (i.e. four wheel drive vehicles, opulent office furniture, computers, stationary, tea and cakes).

Only a miserable 7 percent of this aid goes into purchase of drugs. Now you understand why, in spite of a huge health budget, our people cannot find drugs in hospitals. We in the media have been shouting ourselves hoarse against government corruption. It is time to expose the worse forms of profligacy, which forces our governments to pile up huge sums in debt.

In fact, of the total money from the Uganda government budget to the ministry of Health, 98 percent reaches its intended beneficiaries, clearly showing that in spite of its corrupt ways, the government of Uganda is a better evi l than donors. Of total project aid to Uganda, 68 percent goes into overheads and technical assistance. Only 32 percent to its intended beneficiaries.

A few weeks ago I presented the above facts to President Yoweri Museveni and asked him to act. My heart bleeds to say he is so deeply discredited by his inability to tackle corruption in his government, and his own profligate public administration expenditure that he lacks moral authority to take on donors.

The other reason is that his regime lives off this coalition of mutual deceit with donors that both are fighting to eradicate poverty in Uganda. Kagame, however, is able to act boldly because he occupies a moral high ground in fighting corruption, has ensured fiscal frugality and also because his government pursues strategies of survival - not necessarily dependant on donor approval.

In Rwanda, ministers and other high ranking public officials resign and or are fired by the week because of allegations of corruption. From the lowest clerk in a government office to the most powerful minister or military or security chief, no one is immune to jail when they steal; none close to the president, none distant from him. You steal, you get jailed.

If there is some prima facie case that you stole, but there isn't not enough evidence to convict you in a court of law, then you are asked to resign or get fired. What a tough guy this Kagame man is!!

Tanzania Higher Education Students Loans

The system of issuing loans for students to pursue higher education--who would pay back later when employed or running businesses--is nothing new, being applied in many countries.

To Tanzania it was an introduction of change that was very much unwanted: the new loanees would ask, "why us?, Why did our parents etc receive free education but not us?" The question has a convincing answer, so the loan thing came to be accepted as a way of life, an expense like foodstuff and fuel.

The problems of implementation began. After the first faltering steps, it was apparent that the numbers going for loans was overwhelming. Off the list went those pursuing postgraduate studies. Yet the applicants were more than budgeted funds. The Board morphed its criteria by limiting beneficiaries to only those who got Division One. This was not the minimum qualifications set out by the universities, by the way. It proved disastrous--aspirants of tough UG courses such as Meidicine and Engineering figured the chances of scoring Div I with good grades in those subjects, and opted to study for easier humanities subjects. Long-term effect? A nation with short supply of professionals but full of "artists"--lawyers, linguists, historians, librarians etc etc. As employment chances are dwindling compared to number of graduates, one of the alternatives to employment would be enterpreneurship, and who would be in a better position to start an enterprise than a professional?

Then came the concept that the Board would be in a position to help more students if those with well-to-do families could receive less loans (60 - 80 percent of total financial requirement for tuition, subsistence etc). Based on a set of questions on the application forms, the Board would decide who would receive 100, 80 or 60 percent. The system seems flawed, likely from the massive paperwork resulting from the applications, and actual loans are not reflecting on true student social status. Study they must, so some students have been known to pay for the tuition using their subsistence allowances and going around campuses like beggers or surviving on unrealistic rations.

The Board had also figured a trick of making money on the side off the prospective students. They would charge TZS 10,000 (a bit less than USD 10) as a processing fee for every application form submitted. The trick lies here: the applications are required to be submitted well before the high school results are out, with candidates not even sure whether they'll meet minimum qualifications to enroll. This money is not refunded. It is a cruel little scheme, because all parents think their child is a genius if there was any genius in the world, and would gladly pay for the fee. If some study were to be done, it would reveal the Board has been making a bundle this way.

Another problem that featured around blogs/forums awhile back was that of one student being listed for lone in as many as 4 different institutions. So manual is the processing system of applications that they allow such error arising from multiple applications.

It therefore came as no surprise when students from a number of universities and colleges rose as one protesting against partial loan that has lead to much anxiety, insecurity, and more. A little girl who left her upcountry home to come pursuing a degree courses might find herself unwillingly drawn into love affair and possible dire consequences included STIs and single motherhood.

The state organs rolled anti-riot gear to campuses, donned face masks and fired tear gas at the kids. Even as this was happening in one campus, the other were coming onboard. One by one the institutions closed and students sent home. This was after the Minister in the troubled Ministry of Education had issued an announcement on media, "All students should be in their classrooms tomorrow at 7 a.m." I reflected during my entire higher education stint of several years if there had ever been a timetable where one should be in class at 7 a.m., I drew a blank. And this gentleman is a professor, no less!

I am throwing my lot with the protesting students:

• the 7 a.m. ridicule stated above is part of it.
• the other reasons is the apparent unwillingness to refuse acting by logic, through negotiations between students government and the responsible ministry.
• I also am pretty convinced that the responsible ministry has not sought funds realistically to cater for bigger enrolment and hence more loans. We know how co-operating taxpayers can be towards a good cause. Road toll levy on fuel pump sales helped building kilometers of roads. similar levying could be aimed at boosting the loans pouch--several people would like to do their postgrads if loans were availed to them, and most students who met minimum qualifications to enrol would like to do just that.
• Tanzania is the last in East Africa region in tertiary institutions enrolment figures. What did other country do to achieve that, while they all have less populations compared to that of our country?

Obama US President-elect: Long way coming...

Racism is an old-fashioned fad. The few who still clutch it could be regarded as peculiar. Possibly, looking at history of such persons it might be proved that their minds were warped by teachings of older generations (parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, their "role models"-ugh!). This sad chunk of humanity isn't much different from children who are afraid of spiders.

Black persons have been prominent world over for a long time. Those in sports has a following of a multitude of fans. Jesse Owens, Mohamed Ali, Arthur Ashe, down to today's Brian Lara and Tiger Wood. Entertainment world has Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy and a million more.

When a black person does a good turn, reporting of such story carefully shrouds anything about his origins, his colour. A Tanzanian colleague working in Silicon Valley some three years ago was awarded an information technology patent, something about routers, IP and DNS (computer jargon). We only got to know about it because of email forum with a large following of Tanzanians in diaspora. When a black person makes a hiccup, the world will hear about it. At about the time of patent I just described, another Tanzanian had slaughtered a couple of goats in his apartment in the US, some neighbour rang the cops from the noises the goats made, and prompt arrests were made. The story hit the wires and was all over the place about an African from Tanzania who murdered goats in cold blood showing high degree of cruelty to animals. Some goats that had not yet been slaughtered were "rescued".

Now, by Americans deciding solidly to elect Mr Obama, I can only say, yes, the playing field is getting level. And it is not merely campaigning for one year by Camp Obama. The trail leading to thawing of sinful souls from the days of slavery was long, hard, disherartening. With occasional spikes like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, time moved steadily on towards Obama 2009.

The tiles on that road include Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Richard Roundtree, Diana Ross, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Isaac Hayes, LeVar Burton, all. Any person of colour that threw in their lot to receive recognition of the World. Not limited to America too. We have had Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Asha-Rose Migiro, Olushegun Obasanjo, Miriam Makeba (recently deceased, RIP). African soccer stars world over has done a black man proud over years.

I'm feeling good. Things will never be the same again. The Change We Need Is Here!

Recent history: The Great Sarcoz-Palin Phone Conversation