Dodoma to host Bunge committees

KATARE MBASHIRU

The Parliament House of Tanzania

 THE Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Job Ndugai, has directed that beginning next month, all parliamentary standing committee meetings will be conducted in Dodoma.

The directive follows President John Magufuli’s quest to make Dodoma the seat of government and ensure that all state businesses were moved from Dar es Salaam to the country’s designated capital.

The Parliament’s Communication, Public Education and Information Unit said in a statement yesterday that his directive was in line with the president’s directive.

The Speaker insisted that because the ministers who are highly involved in the Bunge committees would be shifting from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, it was high time all parliamentary meetings to be convened in Dodoma.

The standing committee meetings are scheduled to kick off from August 22 and will wind up on September 4, according to Mr Ndugai. The meetings are in accordance with the august House Standing Order Number 117 (4), of January 2016, according to the statement.

“Standing order no 117(4) clearly states that usual parliamentary standing committee meetings shall be conducted in Dodoma, Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar and following the government’s directive that ministers and other government officials should move from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, from now on, all meetings will be conducted in Dodoma,’’ the statement read in part.

Mr Ndugai said Parliament was one of the organs that had started conducting its business in Dodoma since October 1974 and after the 1995 General Election, all parliamentary sessions have been convening in Dodoma.

“However, the standing committee meetings were still taking place in Dar es Salaam because they needed the government’s close coordination. All government businesses and other parliamentary staff were in Dar es Salaam.

But now, the entire staff shall move from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma,’’ said Mr Ndugai.

President Magufuli recently expressed his commitment to relocate his office to Dodoma before the end of his five-year term. The Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, also confirmed that he would move to the new capital by September, directing all ministers to do the same.

According to the National Assembly Speaker, the Executive and Parliament will soon start working together because the government was preparing to move from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma where parliamentary sessions are conducted.