By Patty Magubira
The Political Platform Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The ongoing uproar over the increase of subsistence and sitting allowances in the government’s budget is but part of political gimmicks to be anticipated ahead of the 2015 General Election.A political analyst says the ‘political trickery’ was the opposition camp’s attempt to defeat Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in the forthcoming General Election.
The political analyst with Mzumbe University under the Faculty of Commerce, Dr Elisante ole Gabriel, cautioned CCM MPs over blindly turning down the proposal to scrap the allowances.The image of the ruling party would be damaged and the party would significantly lose the electorate’s trust if MPs on the CCM ticket express disapproval of the proposal of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) MPs, he said.
Challenging the opposition MPs’ bid to scrap off their subsistence and sitting allowances and use it for the development of their constituencies, Dr Grabriel hailed the idea, but criticised the approach used for presenting it saying it was not scientific.
Dr Gabriel observed over the phone from
The Kigoma North MP, Mr Zitto Kabwe, and Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) have lately been advocating for scraping of the Sh70, 000 subsistence allowance and Sh80, 000 sitting allowances paid to each MP daily, noting that they do not reflect a sense of accountability.
A parliamentarian was not supposed to be paid those allowances because his or her primary responsibility was to sit and deliberate on national issues in the House, the official opposition camp explained.Had the opposition MPs raised their concern internally, a consensus would have been reached with their Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) counterparts, Dr Gabriel believes.Abolishing MPs’ allowances is only one of many ways of saving money that could be identified in closed-door meetings, he said.
The official Opposition Camp in Parliament claimed that Sh987 billion, equivalent to 13 per cent of the Sh8.6 trillion recurrent expenditure or six per cent of the entire budget, had been set aside as allowances in 2011/12 budget.
Mr Kabwe decided to walk his talk by choosing to forfeit his sitting allowances during the entire Budget session.
But the Finance minister, Mr Mustafa Mkulo, dismissed the claims on Saturday, saying most of the reports were “misleading and grossly exaggerated”.
“Many ordinary Tanzanians do not analyse political issues. There is a danger of the electorate hating CCM for the opposing Chadema agenda,” Dr Gabriel explained.Arguing another school of thought that the abolition of allowances would deter scholars from abandoning their professions and rush to politics, Dr Gabriel said most of the scholars vied for parliamentary posts for self-esteem rather than allowances.
“There is money out of politics; the Sh7 million a Member of Parliament earns a month can be seen as a huge income by an ordinary Tanzanian, but it is peanut to a professor, who can earn up to Sh10 million a week by providing consultancy services alone,” he explained.
Dr Gabriel said he was planning to conduct a research sometime this year on the impact of seasoned scholars such as Professor Mark Mwandosya and Dr Diodorus Kamala’s decision resorting to politics.Another political analyst from Mwanza, Mr Sammy Awami, hailed the opposition MPs’ bid to scrap allowances, saying the huge amount of money could save hundreds of pupils from sitting on the floor if the funds were used for buying desks.
“The MPs did not deserve to get the allowances because meetings are part of their work and the economy does not allow paying them such money,” Mr Awami, a student at the St Augustine University of Tanzania, said.He said scrapping of the MPs’ allowances would not discourage scholars’ rush to join politics, contending that most of them were after the respect attached to the post.
The amount that the government has been setting aside for allowances has traditionally been on the upward trend for several years now. Records show that the government gave a whooping Sh506 billion ($390 million) for allowances in the 2008/09 fiscal year.
“If our work is to sit and discuss and we get salaries for that, why then should we also be paid allowances for doing what we are supposed to do as part of our responsibilities?” he queried.The entire Bunge allowances kitty for 2011/12 has been set at Sh33 billion, of which Sh11 billion will be paid to the lawmakers for ‘sitting’.
The NCCR-Mageuzi head of Information and Propaganda, Mr David Kafulila, backed Chadema at the weekend when he vowed that the MPs on the party’s ticket would too direct Mr Mkulo to deposit their allowances to Kigoma Region development projects’ account.
The NCCR-Mageuzi lawmakers, who hail from Kigoma Region along with Mr Kabwe, observed that the region’s development vote received paltry funds compared to all other regions in the country.
An analysis of the budget books shows that the amount for allowances, which has raised eyebrows in the opposition camp, is enough to finance operations of 17 ministries and Parliament whose total recurrent budget is Sh891 billion.
The allowances budget is also enough to finance recurrent operations of Arusha, Coast,
Additional reporting by Anthony Mayunga, Serengeti.
Copy right: Emmanuel Diah
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