No plans to establish public investment fund-govt

By The guardian reporter

Finance deputy minister, Saada Mkuya

The government yesterday said that it has no plans to establish a public investment fund, but will instead continue to improve the Treasury Registrar Ordinance to supervise well the performance of public organisations.

Finance deputy minister Saada Mkuya told the Parliament here that there was no necessity of setting up the fund now because the government is supporting the organisations by providing them with capital.

She was responding to a basic question by Christowaja Mtinda (Special Seats, Chadema) who wanted to know how far the government has gone in establishing the fund.

Mtinda was of the view that it is high time the government established the fund to provide capital to public organisations, and hence improve their performance.

“Some public organisations are not only facing problems of capital shortage, they also have other problems and whenever they are in need of capital they get support from the government,” Mkuya observed.

She explained that lack of capital was among the problems that compelled the government to come up with a policy on privatisation of public enterprises.
Mkuya said that the idea of establishing a public investment fund was introduced by PSRC and should have pooled money from proceeds of sales of public organisations under the privatisation arrangement.

“Although the idea was seen to beneficial, it was contrary to the government policy of not engaging in business. Thus the government directed that the money that will be obtained from privatisation be channeled to the government main basket,” she noted.

She said that public organisations and institutions with capital problems will continue to be supported through the normal system of government budget. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN