THE Chief Secretary (CS), Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, has downplayed criticism levelled by a former deputy minister in the Fourth phase government over the size of the government following the recent appointment of permanent secretaries and their deputies.
Dr Makongoro Mahanga, former Deputy
Minister for Labour and Employment in the previous administration, said
at the weekend that by appointing many permanent secretaries, President
John Magufuli acted contrary to his promise of reducing the size of the
government in his bid to reduce unnecessary cost.
But yesterday, Ambassador Sefue came out
strongly in an interview with the ‘Daily News’ that the number of
permanent secretaries and their deputies in Dr Magufuli’s government is
smaller than that of the previous government.
“The number of PSs and their deputies in
the Fourth Phase Government was 54 compared to 49 that were appointed
by Dr Magufuli last week,’’ he insisted. However, according to him,
permanent secretaries are not part of the cabinet, insisting that their
number was not an indicator for identifying the size of the government.
According to Dr Mahanga, by appointing
27 permanent secretaries in a government that has only 19 ministries, it
was obvious that the ministries were no longer 19. “It should be
properly understood that the size of the government does not depend on
the size of ministers but it depends on the number of permanent
secretaries,’’ argued the former deputy minister.
However, Ambassador Sefue was quick to
point out that he did not see any need to give him a reply “but for a
person who has been a deputy minister for a long time, it gives me an
impression that he does not understand that permanent secretaries are
not part of the cabinet.’’
According to the CS, considering the
number of permanent secretaries who were appointed in the Fourth Phase
government, it was obvious that their number and those of their deputies
is smaller than that of the previous government.
In his argument, the former deputy
minister further expressed his ‘dismay’ over the decision to have two
PSs in one ministry, saying it was likely to affect the chain of
command.
“For us who went to school, the chain of
command in management is clear that any employee needs only one
immediate boss,’’ he added. His sentiment was echoed by University of
Dar es Salaam (UDSM) lecturer of Political Science and Public
Administration, Dr Benson Bana, who noted that under the profession of
administration, it was improper to use number of PSs as yardstick of
measuring the size of the cabinet.
He said that despite the fact that the
chain of command was likely to be affected because there should be only
one Chief Executive Officer (CEO-PS) in the ministry, it was yet not
proper to argue on the size of the government by using the number of
permanent secretaries and their deputies.
Dr Bana also argued that it was
difficult for Dr Mahanga to give an objective comment regarding the
government because he had lost during primaries in the ruling party
before decamping to the opposition.
According to him, when enforcing
accountability, the composition of the government may be flexible,
meaning it keeps on changing, insisting that only the best leaders were
needed to help in solving problems affecting Tanzanians.
UDSM Lecturer of Political Science and
Public Administration, Mr Bashiru Ally, supported the new appointments
but cautioned that the outcome would depend on productivity and delivery
of the appointees.
He noted that for the first time, Dr
Magufuli has appointed more than one permanent secretary to the same
ministry; a move that he said was somehow confusing because one may fail
to understand who will be giving directives to the other.
“It is a good move, however; provided
that they will deliver accordingly because some ministries that were
independent in the previous administration have been merged,’’ he added.
Dr Hamad Salim of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) said the
president had increased the number of PSs and their deputies but
decreased the number of politicians.
“If they can be able to reduce spending,
it is not bad to have such a number because from what we are seeing
now, the Head of State has only reduced the number of politicians and at
the same time increasing the number of PSs,’’ he observed
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