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Public anxious for new cabinet
2008-02-11 09:07:10
By Guardian Reporter
President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to name a new cabinet list today in Dodoma, amid speculation that he will, this time around, come up with a relatively smaller cabinet.
It is predicted that President Kikwete, after a dramatic dissolution of his first team, will form a cabinet that has relatively many new faces. He may leave out quite a significant number, including those listed on the shame list.
The dissolved cabinet comprised 61 full and deputy ministers, a number which critics say is too big for a poor country, whose populace lives on less than a dollar a day on the average.
There is therefore a possibility that the President may halve the size of the cabinet line up. There have been persistent calls for having a small but efficient cabinet.
Analysts expect that the deputy ministers will be most affected by the slash down, especially those in ministries that had two deputies each and others that might be amalgamated.
There is a lot of anxiety by the wananchi. They are eager to see new faces, and speculation is rife as to who is going to be left out.
It is widely expected that ministers who had been implicated in the signing of scandalous contracts like IPTL and Richmond, those who have been associated with the massive embezzlement of public funds at the Central Bank and others who had headed ministries at a time when there was pillage of natural resources will fall prey to the exercise.
The opposition alliance which had issued a list of shame naming several top ranking government officials for allegedly being involved in grand corruption deals, has urged President Kikwete to drop all those it had named, and there is a chance that the President may honour their request.
Calls have also been made for Attorney General Johnson Mwanyika and PCCB director general Edward Hosea to quit in line with recommendations that were made by the House Select Committee on the Richmond scandal.
AG Mwanyika has been quoted by a section of the media as saying that he is not going to resign, while Hosea is yet to make his stand public. Hosea is not a member of the cabinet.
Nevertheless, the possibility of both men retaining their posts in the near future remains shaky due to on-going public uproar, as they are already being seen as a liability to the President.
On the other hand, there have been calls for the dropping of permanent secretaries whose ministries are on spotlight in relation to the above mentioned scandals. It is unclear whether the President will go that far, but there is a good possibility that he may do so.
There are also some cabinet ministers who have already been linked to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT)’s external payments arrears (EPA) account scandal. These might not appear in the new line up.
Long serving ministers stand the risk of being left out. These include Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru, who is the minister of state in the President`s Office and also one of the President`s key advisers. Joseph Mungai may also not make it this time around.
Ministries that have been touched in one way or another with scandals in the past few years are Finance, Natural Resources and Tourism and Energy and Minerals.
Already, Nazir Karamagi and Dr. Ibrahim Msabaha have resigned and are definitely not expected to feature in the new cabinet, following the publication of a damning report on their complicity in the Richmond dubious agreement signing and enforcement.
Other ministers who might be dropped are Andrew Chenge, Zakia Meghji and Basil Mramba.
Those who have a good chance of coming back are Prof. Peter Msolla, Philip Marmo, Dr. Mary Nagu, Prof. Mark Mwandosya, John Magufuli, Bernard Membe, Stephen Wassira, Anthony Diallo, Margaret Sitta and John Chiligati.
On new faces, there is a likelihood of outspoken Same-east MP Anne Kilango Malecela and Kyela MP Harrison Mwakyembe joining the cabinet.
Dr Mwakyembe had chaired the Parliament Select Committee that probed the Richmond scandal.
President Kikwete dissolved his cabinet after former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa was implicated in the Richmond corruption scandal. The PM was compelled to resign in line with the select team`s recommendations.
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