Bagamoyo — IT's now official, the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) will from January 1 next year take over cargo handling services done by the Tanzania International Container Services (TICTS) Limited, pledging that the services will be more quality than ever before.
In a related development, the TPA disclosed major reforms in provision of services digitally from next January, citing some as the introduction of TPA's mobile application and smart card to simplify payments.
Authority's Deputy Director-General Juma Kijavara announced the new development yesterday in Bagamoyo during a strategic meeting with journalists.
"The agreement with the TICTS has ended; we are going to take over from January next year. I assure you that services are going to be more qualitative than before... I wanted you to hear from the horse's mouth," Mr Kijavara said.
This means that the TPA will now operate berths number 8 to 11 that have been under the TICTS for over 20 years so as to get the revenues forecasted to be collected from cargo handled at the respective berths.
He further said TICTS being a tenant of the TPA, when the tenure of the agreement ends will depend on the latter's decision to extend tenure or not.
Equally, Mr Kijavara elaborated that cargo handling equipment used by the TICTS would continue being used by the TPA, since the agreement has set provisions giving a right of first refusal to the government.
The right of first refusal is a contractual right giving its holder the option to transact with the other contracting party before others can, meaning that if the TICTS sells the equipment the TPA will be the first buyer.
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"The equipment will remain there, only the management will change," he stressed.
On the other hand, he allayed fears among workers of TICTS over losing their jobs, saying their jobs are safe. "Their jobs are safe and will be paid their benefits accordingly," he vowed.
In 2008, Parliament passed a resolution instructing the government to terminate the contract extension. However, that was followed by a five-year contract extension in 2017.
In September 2017, the late President John Magufuli directed the TPA to review its contract with TICTS. That came only five months after the former CAG, Prof Musa Assad, revealed that the contract had numerous defects.
After reviewing the contract in 2017, the government doubled the annual fee TICTS pays for leasing the lucrative container terminal from 7 million US dollars to 14 million US dollars.
Speaking on the TPA's mobile App, Mr Kijavara said, the application would enable the customers to make payments at any place without physically going to the banks.
About mastercard, he explained that it would allow customers to recharge and pay for various TPA's services.
