ENERGY and Minerals Ministry is planning absolute transformation to its legal unit seeking to advance contribution of the sectors in the national gross domestic product, GDP.
Currently the Ministry’s mining sector
for instance account for only 4 per cent to the GDP, lower than in
Zambia and South Africa where the sector contribute 6.2 per cent and 12
per cent of GDP respectively.
Energy and Minerals Minister Professor
Sospeter Muhongo rushed to point a finger to the ministry’s legal
department for being inactive and obdurate thus accounting for bogus
investment contracts. “To be specific, our legal officers are not
careful.
It isn’t corruption but negligence and
sluggishness,” he said. As a result the Ministry has been spending a lot
in unproductive debates including legal cases. The Minister who was
addressing Ministry of Energy and Minerals Workers Council announced a
need for the lawyers to take extra English class at the British Council
in Dar es Salaam to master their language skills.
While some young graduates must be
promoted to take over senior position, the Minister said the most of the
legal documents including contracts and Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) submitted for approval had numerous errors, not good for the
country.
One of the contracts was recently
submitted to the Minister involving an investor who is to produce 14Mw,
part of the requirement included in the document states; “Tanesco must
buy electricity generated by the firm and failure to that it would be
entitled to penalties.”
“The same document did not state if the
investor would be penalised should it fail to generate the required
electricity ... this is part of the serious problem within our legal
unit,” Prof Mhongo said.
The Ministry however banned agency and
other authorities under the ministry to sign MoUs without approval of
the Permanent Secretary or the Minister in charge.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry Prof James Mdole said such restructuring in the ministry seeks
to put the government at a better place ahead of large investments
including the construction of Us$30billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
plant planned for Lindi region.
Workers Council Chairperson Maselina
Mshumbusi told the Minister there were more than 360 staff who await
promotion and the process was taking too long.
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