The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Patty Magubira
25 August 2008
The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has cautioned the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism against delegating security services to private investors.
Members of the committee urged the ministry to revisit its contracts with private investors in the natural resources sector to ensure that only the Government handled recruitment, training and paid game wardens instead of delegating such responsibilities to foreigners.
The legislatures said delegating security to investors would make game wardens receive orders from heir employers and not the Government.
The director of Wildlife Division, Mr Erasmus Tarimo, had earlier informed the committee that an investor has been allowed to recruit and pay game wardens, while the Government only provides training. The MPs are on a four-day tour of Serengeti Wildlife Management Area to see how villagers benefit from investments in the natural resources sector.
"We have come to see how the local governments uses revenue it gets from investors in mining and wildlife in development, and villagers benefit in terms of improved social services," PAC chairman John Momose Cheyo said.
The visiting legislatures had earlier heard complaints from the villagers around Serengeti Game Reserves that an investor has recruited a para military force which harass them.
Mr Cheyo said his committee would urge the Government to amend some laws to allow the local population, investors and Government to equally share profits derived from natural resources.
He said although Tanzania is endowed with abundant natural resources, the national budget was still heavily dependent on donors as opposed to neighbouring Kenya whose budget was only five per cent dependent on donors.
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