Members of Parliament yesterday challenged the government’s intention to approve Section 66 of the new Public Procurement Bill, 2011 which, if given the nod by the House, will allow the State to purchase used airplanes, ships, railway engines wagons.
The Bill, presented in the House by the minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr Mustafa Mkulo, among other things, focuses at improving and giving more powers to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) to undertake its operations effectively.
The minister said the new Bill nullifies the 2004 Public Procurement Act, and the ministry in cooperation with the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Economic Affairs and other stakeholders has gone through the Bill and decided to present it for more efficiency and better performance of the sector.
However, the opposition Finance and Economic Affairs deputy spokesperson, Ms Christine Lissu, challenged the Bill, saying the document was not well prepared to solve the problem. According to Ms Lissu, the document has failed to identify flaws that have forced the government to prepare a new Bill.
“The government has so far failed to tell us why it decided to formulate a new Bill to replace the Act. We want to see the weaknesses of the current law and not the strengths of the new Bill,” she said
Commenting on the government intention to purchase second- hand ships, airplanes, train engines and wagons, the opposition leader said the idea was alarming as it was likely to create opportunity for corruption. He said it was better to incur high costs for brand new machines instead of second hand, which are risky.
Mr Kigoda said the committee supports the idea of second hand purchases, but care should be taken lest Tanzania becomes other countries’ dumping ground.
Mr Kigoda said the purchase of machines and other materials under emergency should be done by the government when there was a state of war, health problems, fire outbreak and other things related to national security.
Now govt defends procurement of secondhand machines
The minister for Transport, Mr Omar Nundu, told Parliament purchasing secondhand machines suited Tanzania at the moment because many countries were applying the same strategy on costly machines such as planes, train engines and ships.
According to Mr Nundu, Kenya Airways sold a plane to a Canada-based airline in 2005. Kenya Airways had bought the plane in 2001. He added that British Airways, Ethiopian Airways and many other big companies in the world have been buying used planes from each other.The minister expressed suspicion that there were deliberate plans to prevent the Bill from passing due to individual interests.
Mr Nundu said all air transport companies in the country such as Precision Air, Fly 540 were operating used planes. He wondered why the idea was perceived dangerous when the government applied it.
Parliament is expected to conclude debating the Bill on Monday.
Sounds vaguely like the recent ambulance controversy here on Guam.
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