THE high points of Prime Minister Dr Mwigulu Nchemba’s just-ended working tour of Tanga Region easily include the flagging off of a new medical oxygen production plant at the Lushoto District Hospital, built at a cost of over half a billion shillings.

The event serves to illustrate how far our country is moving in consolidating its development capacity, as the idea of having such a plant in a far-off rural district is surely remarkable.

Yet the high mark of the premier’s pubic remarks on that day was the way in which district officials tend to be lax about standards and probity in supervising public outlays, where the gaps don’t need high expertise merely to be recognised.

There was without doubt something of a milestone in the regional healthcare implications and well beyond noting that there is an oxygen cylinder refilling facility.

That is despite the fact that issues of access to advanced healthcare needs like oxygen aren’t fully sorted out, while blood infusion is rather familiar.

The plant produces sufficient oxygen to refill a daily 120 fifty-kilogramme cylinders, effectively ending the need to look for supplies from Tanga city – 175 kilometres away.

Yes, we even have the luxury of seeing having to move 175 kilometres to get medical oxygen as too far away, as it can’t work in case of an emergency. Earlier, we would have hoped that there are cylinders in stock – as local production wasn’t something we expected.

The mood at the rally addressed by Dr Nchemba meeting encapsulated the psychological and political climate now prevailing in the country, fairly satisfied with development progress.

But, of course, it would be strange if there were no worries that some of those holding office were not genuinely seeking to do the right thing.

What the premier did was in a way steeped in tradition, as it usually takes someone in that high-profile capacity to unmask shoddy projects – and say so.

One reason is that the powers of lower-ranking officials are somewhat circumscribed, which explains why plain ministers have power to select a committee to investigate, while a regional commissioner can place someone under arrest for only a brief period, etc.

Authority to call in national agencies like the police or the anti-corruption bureau to come in full force to conduct an intensive investigation often requires upper-level authority, as in this case.

When it is evident that there are far too many cases where officials make an effort to gain some coins out of public works or purchases, it is a matter of chance whether ‘the lion sleeps tonight’.

That might present itself as business as usual, a celebratory mood that wasn’t expected to be overshadowed by the premier’s deep dissatisfaction with the supervision of various projects.

It is a constant worry on the part of district leaderships in particular, as there is hardly any project executed from start to finish where some cash wasn’t improperly shared out.

When top state officials instruct deep probes, what was thus shared out could be hefty indeed – and why would that not be cause for grave concern?

EU firms also ought to start outlays as traditional breeding likely to linger on

SOME analysts may have found it startling hearing that the Netherlands Embassy was launching a strategic initiative seeking to reduce drug use in poultry farming in Tanzania, with intent to bolster food safety and industrial efficiency across the country.

It was not immediately clear how much the diplomatic mission expected to achieve in organising a related one-day seminar for veterinary officers from Dar es Salaam, Coast and Morogoro regions.

There was an audacious mission even if its tenets are largely familiar, as the seminar focused on shifting the mindset of those in the industry from the use of antibiotics to preventive methods for sustainable poultry production – like abandoning pesticides.

A senior official from the Netherlands embassy raised alarm over the health repercussions of drug-heavy poultry farming, seeking to educate frontline veterinary officers on the matter and lead them into accepting to abandon antibiotics or at least to understand the case for limiting such use.

It has not been established if there is adequate local stakeholder support for shifting from antibiotics use, as much depends on how pivotal the function of such drugs will likely be. This is especially in relation to yield and costing – in other words, productivity and profitability.

As the embassy saw it fit to provide a forum for discussing the issue, and given time-tested experience in Europe, there should definitely be a degree to which such a shift is feasible, but it is as yet hard to tell how far the format can change.

One issue arising, going by the way the embassy expert on the issue presented the case, was hesitation as to whether abandoning antibiotics was an issue of health or aesthetics.

It was also unclear whether it involves health challenges similar to poison or of a more marginal sort, like eating too much fat, etc.

The embassy official was affirmative that he wasn’t opposed to poultry medication but went on to recommend that it should be used as a last resort.

Therefore, so long as this view is about quality rather than directly about harm, chances of its actually being regulated are minimal.

It is one thing for veterinary officers to grasp the argument for the quality of poultry products as based on robust healthy production mechanism and distinct from reactive medication sales.

Here is why one could recommend that veterinary professionals resist the urge to push drug sales at the expense of long-term consumer health.

Yes, there is a point, but if the business depends on that provision and it can’t be established that it carries real danger, the industry is so overly price sensitive that few may elect to abandon the method.

In a very important way, that explains why broiler eggs are still popular even though it is commonly agreed that eggs from traditionally bred chickens are mostly natural or organic and therefore healthier.

With that the standing case, chances of a proper shift are limited and the scenario looks like retaining a live and let live environment.