Marching orders for Wanyancha from Road Fund Board

LYDIA SHEKIGHENDA

Dr James Munanka Wanyancha

PRESIDENT John Magufuli has revoked the appointment of Road Fund Board Chairman Dr James Munanka Wanyancha effective yesterday and appointed Joseph Odo Haule as the new chairman.

Chief Secretary Engineer John Kijazi said in a statement issued in Dodoma yesterday that Mr Haule’s appointment is effective from yesterday. He added that other board members will continue to serve in their positions.

Mr Haule holds a BA in Economics and MA in Transport Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam. Before his appointment, the new RFB served as the fund’s Manager. He once served as Lecturer in Transport Economics at the National Institute of Transport between 1983 and 2000.

He had also served as an external Lecturer in Transport Economics in the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Dar es Salaam from 1996 to 2000.

Mr Haule joined the RFBA in 2000 when it was established as the first Chief Executive Officer of the fund worth about US 313 million US dollars (for 2013/2014) for maintenance of roads countrywide.

He has more than 27 years post-graduate experience in economics with specialisation in transport policy, infrastructure financing, planning and restructuring of the roads sector institutions as well as road maintenance financing and management.

Mr Haule is currently a member of the Executive Committee (since 2008) and Finance Commission (since 2005) of the World Roads Association (PIARC).

He is also the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of AFACP (African Community Access Programme) financed by the DFID and is an Immediate Past President of the African Road Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA) which is an association of 31 member countries that have Road Funds in Africa.

In Tanzania, Mr Haule is the Chairman of the National Road Classification Committee, Member of the Board of Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) and a Member of the Board of the Dar es Salaam Bus Rapid Transit Agency (BRT). RFB became operative from the 2000/01 fiscal year.

The board is composed of nine members, four from the public sector and five from the private sector.

The main functions of the board are to collect revenue, disburse and to monitor utilisation of the same. Sources of Road Fund are fuel levy, transit fees and overloading fees. Fuel levy contributes more than 90 per cent of the fund’s revenue.