Tanzania yet to benefit from the mining sector

October 1, 2011
By Elias Mhegera
THERE is a general concern that Tanzanian Government is not doing enough in giving information in regard to the mining sector transparently.

This is the general conclusion by members of the Policy Forum when they were discussing transparency in the mining sector at the British Council on Friday last week.

Under the title the Status of Transparency in the Extractive Industry, challenges and prospects for the future, presenters explained how the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is functioning.

Presenting his paper titled General Trends of Extractive Industry Transparency and Accountability in Tanzania, Bishop Dr Stephen Munga said that EITI is an international initiative hence it was prone to having different practices depending on the political settings of an individual country.

He said that EITI in Tanzania has achieved in having formed a coalition of key stakeholders through the Multi-Stakeholders Group (MSG) where he is a member. Apart from that is the fact that they have created a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and above all it has produced its first reconciliation report although with a number of discrepancies.

Bishop Munga said that the EITI has managed to bring together key stakeholders namely the Government, companies and civil societies in an atmosphere of transparency to deliberate on issues of mutual concern.
He defended that the initiative has maximized accountability in terms of obligations of public enterprises and agencies entrusted with public resources to be answerable for their responsibilities to those who have been assigned to fulfill.

On his side Ally Samaje who is the Acting Commissioner for Energy and Minerals said that the initiative has operated well due to the fact that Tanzania has clear and stable laws and regulations, and for the fact this country is observing the rule of law.

Presenting his paper titled: What can the Government do to enhance transparency in the Extractive Industries in Tanzania? Samaje said that the initiative has proved to be constructive in the sense that it has brought a balance between the public sector and the private sector.

He noted that transparency is vital in the promotion of investment and developments of the mineral sector. He further argued that the Tanzanian Government has always been maintaining transparency even before the EITI was introduced. For instance in 2003 the Government contracted a private firm Stewart Assayers in order to audit production of Gold.

He assured attendants at the Forum that EITI was just one of many strategies that the Government has been implementing in order to involve citizens in the administering of the mining sector. In order to fulfill this initiative the Government has set a budget since 2009 /2010, and it has dedicated full time staff to work in the TEITI Secretariat.

But while appreciating these efforts some of the participants were worried that another player namely China has intervened in the mining sector while that major communist power has retained secrecy in many of its operations home and abroad to the extent that this might affect the early efforts of maintaining openness which they view as a European phenomenon.

“I think there is a need to make sure that China fall in the same trend as experinces in other areas like Southern Sudan has put it in jeopardy,” said Ephrahim and economist based in Dar es Salaam.