MPs ready for debate on IPTL saga

It's now official that the eagerly awaited debate on the raging controversy over the Tegeta escrow account scandal reports will run for three consecutive days in the National Assembly starting tomorrow.

The decision came after a dramatic back and forth exchange between House Speaker Anne Makinda and legislators who were pushing for the deliberations to be held y
esterday and not tomorrow.

The MPs wanted other House business shelved for the day to pave the way for debate on the scandal reports, which have seen several of Tanzania’s development partners withhold some 1trn/- in national budget funding, to take precedence.

It all started with a private motion tabled by Nominated MP James Mbatia seeking to have the scam debated promptly “so as to clear the air”.

The lawmaker asked for the Speaker’s guidance, citing distribution of a report on the matter from the Office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to some MPs and the public. He said the presumed distributor of the documents was being held for questioning after officials from the Parliament Office and the police intervened.

He said the person was found with several copies of the report in hand and that the person had stolen the documents from the Speaker’s Office before it was handed over to Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Zitto Zuberi Kabwe on Monday.

“Copies of the documents handed over to PAC had special signs that differentiate them from the ones circulated in the streets…this is against Parliamentary Powers, Ethics and Privileges Act,” Mbatia said, imploring the Speaker to ensure the CAG’s report was debated there and then.

According to the Parliamentary Powers, Ethics and Privileges Act, Section 296 (31) (g): “Any person publishing, serving as general of special leave of the Assembly, any favour, report for any document prepared explicitly for submission to the Assembly before the same has been laid before the table of the Assembly shall be guilty of an offence and shall be on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding 500,000/- or imprisonment to a term not exceeding 3 years.”

Speaker Makinda then retorted: “I personally thank Mbatia and other MPs who assisted in the preliminary investigation that led to the arrest of the man who was distributing the CAG’s report…this is a serious abuse of my office…let the police investigate the matter and I will set the date for the debate.”
She said discussions on findings of the parliamentary subcommittee on causalities of land disputes that was set for Thursday and Friday have now been waved to allow more time for the MPs to discuss the PAC’s report.

But Tundu Lissu (Singida-West, Chadema) was not impressed and argued that the matter under dispute was, according to Section 51 (3) of the Parliamentary Standing Orders, about parliamentary constitutional rights.

The same section, he said, allows discussion on such a matter to be given priority by the Speaker above any other business slated for debate in the House.