While Zitto is being attacked pls read here

While Zitto is being attacked pls read here

By Ole Siringot

As much as i was suspicious of Hon. Zitto motives on the assigned review process on the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs)and energy contracts by the Minister of Energy and Minerals; i was forced to backtrack from my Pre-stand and right-off any attempts to have anything significant out of this review process when i came across this! Before narrating to what triggered this sudden retraction of his official statement, as great thinkers of this forum or wadau of this blog we should first ask ourselves what has happened to the discovery of US$ 33 mio. unpaid revenues by PanAfrican Energy as a quota meant for TPDC according to PSA? What happened to the Parliament committee directives to our Government to seek the reimbursement from PanAfrican energy that was supposed to pay its dues anyway? Do we have to restart "the process" every time when a new leadership takes over in that ministry if the objective is not to change or revoke the current contracts that are not in the best interest of our welfare going to this crucial stage of exploiting the proven resources estimated at 33 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas and valued over US$ 430 bio.? How about Zitto's cry for a creation of sovereign Wealth fund? Do we have ears to hear? BTW, what about to the implementation process of the Bomani committee recommendations?

 Can Our Excellency Dr (Honorary)Kikwete look himself in the mirror? BTW if we had a Bomani committee to look at royalties and other taxes paid by gold mines and if EWURA oversleeps on its assigned duties, how about having one (independent) to oversee setting up good gas and oil regulatory policies and to oversee the both the agreements and directives set are respected by the gas companies after the policies are in place before things go awry? Do we have to wait till things go sour? To me, that ministry is too big and lacks first; the capacity to properly handle responsibilities that come from both energy and mineral portfolios! If at all we are serious with our future prospects (we and the generations to come) that ministry has to be split into two now; Energy sector that is serious in shambles needs its own ministry that will oversee power supply, production and revenues of coal, renewable energy sources (like geothermal,solar, biomass, wind) and conventional energy sources like nukes, oil and gas. This has to be serious considered now, especially at this particular time our nation is proven to have over US$ 400 bio. worth of reserves at stake and never had this huge wealth to deal with before! On the other hand, the Mineral ministry has to continue to with deal with all non-hydrocarbons mineral prospecting licenses (metals and gemstones) among others negotiating contracts and PSAs agreements and without forgetting, overseeing how the mining of non-hydrocarbons minerals are conducted according to regulations in place. But, at the same time other ministries (of less importance) can be merged to allow this to happen since the current cabinet is too big and costly to tax-payers to run and its setup is infested with high level bureaucracy that hinders supposed to be swift-delivery on most important issues.

 Second; the ministry lacks the highly sought-after integrity to undertake basic but so vital duties like precisely-protecting our interests while signing PSAs especially with the current regime that is allergic to Transparency! Most of our officers there lack accountability and do not hold at heart the interests of this country probably out of the question of kick-backs luring patriotism.... Once more, We have to quickly remind ourselves that this same graft blighted ministry harbored Nazir Karamagi and William Ngeleja; each of them at his own era and not a single person within the ministry dared to expose their economic atrocities undertakings that could have saved our country from the current situation that prevents our nation to achieve its true and rightly deserving economic potentials out of loss of opportunity due to negligence, revenue loss as a result of pervasive graft and worst enough dilemma on our economic prospects way forward; our sovereignty faces at the moment.

 Though these two are no more there we should not sit back and relax and assure ourselves that all is well at that ministry while with the exception of Karamagi, Ngeleja, Jairo and the old board at TPDC; the old guards are still at large, some even got promoted. The likes of energy commissioners, mining commissioners (that issue mining blocks permits and mining licenses), ministry directors, ministry lawyers et al that are technical savvy and so instrumental to the daily ministry undertakings since are pinnacles on crafting contracts and policies that directly affect us all; but chose to facilitate agreements that right now we are struggling to annul or improve its terms since we disapprove them.

Out of all these setbacks at the management level of the institution assigned to oversee our newly found hydrocarbons, can we dare to say all his arguments (i mean Zitto's) need to go down the drain since he just sound to have attacked Prof. Muhongo on a mission that has already lost track on citing his latest remarks that contradicted the task he assigned the TPDC board to undertake prior? Are we really serious to easily forget the Parliamentary Energy Committee findings and recommendations that sit at Mr Muhongo shelves without a follow up or implementation of its findings and recommendations!? What is the Government of Mr Kikwete doing on recovering the funds not issued to our coffers by PanAfrican energy? And what about the hydrocarbon experts at TPDC have to say on commercialization process of this resource?

 IMOHO, we really need to trade carefully since we just have no idea how good are these MNCs that have for so long proven to be so tricky and best spinners of issues to suit their interests where hydrocarbons have been discovered! Before procrastination costs direly our nation in the near future, We need perseverance on the part of a man at the center of golden undertakings to dare and keep his stand firm and NOT someone that can be easily persuaded to change his stand after issuing them on the back of excuses that the media misquoted his public announcement; fun enough his rebuttal came two days late...likewise we need a man that does not compromise but endowed with negotiation skills and capable of reaching consensus albeit knowing there will be so many deadlocks before attaining a WIN-WIN situation.

Whereas my reasonable doubt lies on the wrong foot under which Mr Muhongo has stepped in on encountering this Mega MNCs; i am convinced to say i withhold the same view on the whole system at the moment that is in shambles and that includes my holding mistrusts on the TPDC experts on their lack of focus and seriousness in handling this massive wealth that lies underneath our coastal-land and off sea immediately and deep in our EEZ! It is out of this vagueness in handling the matter at hand i support Hon. Zitto whistle blowing cum brain storming approach to alert us of the path we are current taking towards resource curse society and i vehemently support his loud approach on the on-goings at the MEM and transparency should be foremost embraced if we have to achieve anything meaningful going towards setting up a first LNG on our shores! Furthermore i would have wanted to hear anything from the NEMC but i am completely ashamed of the fact that the institution is almost dead and only to be reminded of its existence and duties when a replica of the Gulf of Mexico disaster is to happen on our Pristine Coastal waters! So please my dear Tanzanians, Give Hon. Zitto a benefit of doubt and let him do his duties bestowed upon him by our constitution, unfortunately we have no idea how badly need him and many more others since; his being vocal is just a drop in the ocean if we are to compare to serious debates that are currently underway within Ghana on how to best exploit their crude there.