Seven board members and four
top officials of the National Environment Management Council (Nemc) have been
reinstated, days after the Minister of State Vice President’s Office, Mr
January Makamba (pictured), announced he had removed them from office.
The Citizen has impeccably established that the seven members of
the Nemc board, which Mr Makamba dissolved two weeks ago and four directors of
the environment agency are back in office reportedly “on directive from higher
authorities.
”Their reinstatement will
likely raise hard questions over why Mr Makamba’s order was ignored and further
erode the minister’s authority over his own docket.Mr Makamba declined to be drawn into discussing this development but
reliable sources within the ministry told.The youthful minister had been taken
by surprise and was disheartened. When the CitizeN reached him
on the phone, Mr Makamba curtly said: “We are just okay and we are implementing
government policies as usual. No more comment.”Mr Makamba’s changes remained
effective only for a week before what insider sources described as “higher
authorities” directed that status quo be maintained.
Other than the seven Nemc board
members, the four directors who have been reinstated are Manchare Heche, Deus
Katwale, Andrew Kalua and Benjamin Dotto. They had all been removed over poor
performance and corruption allegations.Also back in his former office
is Nemc’s director of finance and administration, Mr Charles Wangwe, who had
already received a letter to report to the finance ministry.It is no yet clear exactly who ordered that the sacked officials be
reinstated and the reasons thereof but it is obvious that the move will curtail
administrative powers of the minister and affect operations within Nemc.
Our sources revealed that the
order to reverse Mr Makamba’s decision was passed through his Permanent
Secretary. The affected board members and all director are back in their
respective roles at Nemc.A highly placed source within
Nemc confided that it was going to be challenging for the minister to implement
his earlier declared plan to bring sweeping changes at the environment agency.
Independent analysts also feel there is more than meet the eye in the manner in
which the whole affair was handled.
“The minister will have to be
so courageous to raise his voice at Nemc and start working with the same people
he had lost faith in. “I don’t know who took that decision but it is not in
doubt that the reversal has partially taken away his powers and the will to
push through his plans to overhaul Nemc,” a highly placed source in Nemc told <em>The Citizen</em>.
“The issue is that these people
had become the law unto themselves and Mr Makamba was pushing very hard to have
them perform as required under the law. We should therefore not expect any
progress if Nemc is not overhauled,” added the insider. “Nemc has turned into
an empire. Business has stagnated here and we are receiving too many complaints
from the business community and industrialists. It is no longer a secret that
corruption is rampant particular when it comes to issuing EIA certificates,”
said the Nemc official on condition of anonymity.
Analysts also agree the slap on
Mr Makamba’s face is likely to generate tensions and impede the minister. His
moral authority over the officials has been diminished.
“This doesn’t give a good
impression. In other countries a minister would resign because his authority
has been questioned or undermined. It is possible that he (Makamba) took the
decision without first making sufficient consultations. I don’t think they gave
him a go ahead and all over sudden turned against him,” said Prof Gaudence
Mpangala of Ruaha Catholic University (Rucu).
He added: “You know the
administrative system we have today is that people under the president take
actions by thinking they would impress the president by being seen they are
performing but that doesn’t work always.
Dr Benson Bana of the
Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of
Dar es Salaam agrees.
“I think the problem is
possibly consultation. Mr Makamba is under the Vice-President and basically the
Vice President is the one with authority. The minister doesn’t have the
instruments. Now, to dissolve a board is under the authority of the VP. The
important question we need to ask ourselves here is: was the Vice President
privy to and approved Mr Makamba’s plan?
A fortnight ago, Mr Makamba
announced at a press conference that he had dissolved Nemc board and suspended
Mr Heche, Mr Katwale, Mr Kalua and Mr Dotto. The minister said then several
other officials were placed under investigation.
“We have decided to dissolve
the board and suspend some senior officials of Nemc to pave the way for
investigation over various allegations they face. Nemc is facing serious
administrative challenges that impede implementation of the government’s
industrialisation agenda. They never come with solutions but unfulfilled
promises,”said Mr Makamba.
He cited unnecessary delays in
issuance of the EIA certificates to investors as one of the council’s serious
weaknesses.The ministry of Industry and Trade had in various occasions cited such as
one of their main problems.
Recently President John
Magufuli separately expressed concern about the same delays while addressing
two public rallies in the Coast Region last month.High-level corruption is also mentioned as a plague at the agency, with
some of its officials accused of illegally and maliciously imposing
environmental fees on industries and sometimes using threats to solicit bribes.
A stand-out case that is well
known within Nemc and at the ministry is the one involving a Sh240 million fee
charged on a Chinese investor in Dodoma, and whose payment was questionably
reduced to Sh20 million and is now a subject of investigations by the
Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).Our inquiries show the
issue of the Donkey meat abattoir in Dodoma landed in Mr Makamba’s desk for
investigation and was one of the reasons citing in his decision to remove the
officers.
Sources said receipts and other
documentary evidence gathered revealed how the Chinese firm only paid Sh20
million in fee after negotiating for “soft landing” with Nemc officials.Reports have it that the Nemc officials later forged minutes of a
negotiation meeting purporting to show that the investor had written to ask for
reduction of the fee.Investigations found that all
Nemc officials who were mentioned in the minute sheet to have attended a
meeting that lowered the fees disowned them. Under the law, only environment
minister has powers to reduce environmental fees or fines.
According to our sources, when
the matter was taken to the board, it was reluctant to punish the Nemc
officials implicated and instead said they should be warned. World at the
ministry was that money had changed hands to get the Chinese off the hook. The
donkey meat abattoir has since been closed over a government ban on slaughter
of donkeys.
It was owing to the deep rot at
the environment agency that Mr Makamba convened a meeting of top officials in
his ministry and drew up strategies to address the deficiencies.
Part of the plan was how to
tackle interest groups with deep pockets who are blamed for stalling any
meaningful policy and actions in the docket, including by past ministers.The lobbyists are fore example blamed for Nemc’s persistent failure to
enforce a total ban on the use of restricted plastic bags and environment
pollution caused by big factories.
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