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Tanzania: CCM Youths Clash Over Contract
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
19 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Mkinga Mkinga
Top officials of the CCM youth wing (UVCCM) are appealing to their party's national leadership to halt the construction of the multi-storey building being put up behind the current headquarters of the wing at Upanga area in Dar es Salaam.
The call by members of the UVCCM national governing council from Dodoma and Tanga came as suspicions of money and influence peddling began to stalk the controversial joint venture with a private developer.
Those who made the plea are Mr Donald Mejiti from Dodoma and Mr Emmanuel Kiondo of Tanga. They were reacting to the emerging controversy involving the planned divestiture of the prime property.
They were concerned about reports that a private developer had moved to the site to start construction "while the national council has not approved any contract or blessed whatever was going on."Yesterday, Mr Kiondo revealed that council members met in Dodoma on February 9 but refused to endorse a contract that was presented for signing because it had clauses that they did not agree with. "We asked the administration to prepare fresh bidding documents and present them in March but that did not happen.
We are therefore surprised that construction is going on," he declared. Mr Kiondo said other UVCCM officials refused to approve of the plan and denied claims by CCM secretary-general Yusuf Makamba that there was nothing fishy about the project.
The UVCCM officials claimed that Makamba may have represented a different viewpoint from that reached in the national governing council, thus whitewashing moves to start construction.
The youths challenged trustees led by former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa to come out clean on the issue, urging them to "intervene to halt the suspicious deal." Mr Mejiti said they want activity at the site to stop until the controversy was fully solved. "The project should be stopped until the youth wing gets its new leaders later in the year as our term ends only about two months away," he said.
He added: "We rejected the proposed contract between UVCCM and the investor, but now it is evident that someone intends to push on with the project despite all the signs that it is improper." However, UVCCM chairman Emmanuel Nchimbi, when reached for comment over the appeal to halt the project, referred all queries to the administrative officer. He said he could not say anything about the implementation of the project. He said: "I'm the chairman; those matters are administrative and are to be directed to the secretary general of UVCCM."
When contacted to comment, UVCCM deputy secretary-general Isaac Mtinga said the call to halt the project was a personal view by some of the members. "Those are their opinions. The council decided and I don't see any reason why I should explain our agreements to journalists," he said and disconnected the call.
A check at the site yesterday found people busy constructing the new building at the UVCCM plot along Morogoro Road in Dar es Salaam. Earlier Mr Mejiti said that in the February meeting they were shown three different bids, all of which had a prohibitive clause stating that the storey building would be owned for life by the private investor with 75 percent of shares while the youth wing retained the balance.
"We shall inquire who allowed such a 'dirty deal' to be signed if it has already been signed, but if not we'll need explanations from our leaders," he said. The youth wing leaders opposed to the deal would demand to know who sold the site to the investor without permission from the council.
Mr Kiondo said it was shocking that they could reject a "dirty deal" only for some officials to turn around and endorse the same contract. "We wonder where they got such mandate to sign a pact with an investor without involving other members as they are required to.
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"Marwa Mathayo, the CCM youth regional chairman from Mara, confirmed when contacted said the UVCCM building was not among agenda discussed in the February meeting because they directed the youth wing management to work on the contract before they could accept it. The Manyara region chairman, who identified himself as Mr Sedeka on his part declined to comment on the controversy, saying UVCCM had its spokesperson.
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