Kafulila: Set guidelines on perks

A member of the Constituent Assembly, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, contributes points during Monday’s session. PHOTO | EMMANUEL HERMAN 

By  Frank Kimboy ,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

The lawmaker said the recent demand by CA members for an allowance raise had shamed the assembly in the eyes of the public, who now viewed delegates as nothing but a bunch of greedy and self-centred individuals.

Dodoma. The government should set clear guidelines on allowances for public officials, a Constituent Assembly (CA) member has suggested.

Mr David Kafulila (Kasulu South-NCCR-Mageuzi) said the controversy sparked by CA members’ demand for an allowance increase was the result of lack of guidelines that stated clearly who was supposed to get what. “We have a big problem when it comes to allowances for public officials…we need to know how much should be paid to who. When someone claims that a Sh300,000 daily allowance is not enough, you have to ask yourself what criteria were used to make this conclusion,” he said.

Mr Kafulila added that state agencies and institutions were not adhering to any known guidelines when paying allowances to their employees. He cited as an example the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) saying its director is paid more than a Cabinet minister when travelling outside the country.

The lawmaker said the recent demand by CA members for an allowance raise had shamed the assembly in the eyes of the public, who now viewed delegates as nothing but a bunch of greedy and self-centred individuals.

Some members said last week that the Sh300,000 they were paid daily was not enough, and asked that the allowance be increased to between Sh500,000 and Sh700,000.

This prompted the CA interim chairman, Mr Pandu Ameir Kificho, to form a six-member committee to consider the request and advise him accordingly.

The committee concluded last weekend that what members were currently getting was enough to enable them to live comfortably in Dodoma in the next three months during which the assembly will discuss the draft constitution.

A member of the committee said it had been concluded that there were no pressing grounds for the allowance to be raised.

The committee member, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the team, said a survey conducted in the last few days in Dodoma had established that CA members could live comfortably on the Sh300,000 they were paid daily.

He said the committee also studied allowances paid by the National Assembly, government and various state agencies and compared them with what CA members were getting.

Finance deputy minister Mwigulu Nchemba on Monday drove the final nail into the allowance debate coffin, saying members who thought what they were getting was not enough should pack up and go home.

“We have not hired consultants from Kenya, the US, Uganda or UK…these people are supposed to be patriots who are doing this work on behalf of their fellow Tanzanians. Their demand for higher allowances is very hard to justify,” he said adding: