He discouraged a proposal by a section of Members of Parliament (MPs) that all contracts the country
was signing with different investors should be brought before the House for review before implementation.
“I do not think this is a good idea. Fine, it may be so for some of contracts at certain levels. But bringing
all contracts for review will render the Parliament with no other business to do. We must trust the
Attorney General,” the Prime Minister said.
He was responding to some questions by Ms Kunti Majala (Special Seat- Chadema), who had pointed,
among others, that some of contracts the country was entering had corruption elements and was costing
the nation.
The MP claimed that according to the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, Parliament was
charged with duties of supervising the government in its operations, including when entering contracts
through its agencies.
She, therefore, sought to know when the government would present before the National Assembly the
contracts entered for review and see whether they were beneficial for the nation.
In his response, the prime minister acknowledged that indeed the government had been entering different
contracts with investors and other parties through its agencies. But, he said, the procedure in place
shows that the AG had been representing the government in all such transactions in order to review all
the contracts before being signed.
“The Attorney General is among executive officers, charged with advising the government and he is
recognized constitutionally. If he (AG) is satisfied, he may allow the government agency concerned to
sign the contract for the government,” the premier explained.
Regarding corruption elements on contracts entered, Mr Majaliwa stated that there were laid down
procedures, including taking legal measures against government officials proved to have acted
unreasonably to sign the contract in question.
There have been several complaints among MPs on the way some contracts entered by certain
government agencies were costing the nation, notably contracts relating to energy and minerals, tourism,
manufacturing and transport sectors.
They prefer such contracts to be forwarded to the National Assembly before being signed by the involved
parties.
In his report presented before the National Assembly here recently, the Controller and Auditor General
(CAG) revealed inadequacies in procurement and contract management which cost the government more
than 57bn/- in the 2014/15 financial year.
The significant procurement issues in the last financial year’s report include among others, a list of
entities that made procurement outside the annual procurement plan (8.5bn/-) and entities that made
procurement without approval of the Tender Board (494.4m/-).
Others, according to the report, are procurement made without competitive tendering (27.1bn/-),
delivered goods without inspection (15.5bn/-) and procurement of goods and services without contracts
(5.2bn/-).
Also in the list is procurement of goods and services through imprests (150.3m/-), procurement of goods
and services from unapproved suppliers (8.6m/-) as well as goods and works procured and paid for but
not delivered (3.3m/-).
