Tanzania set to implement APRM report
By Hassan Abbas, Dodoma – The government of Tanzania has informed the National Assembly in Dodoma Thursday that it is ready to implement recommendations from the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Report for Tanzania.
The promise was issued in the country’s political Capital of Dodoma during the discussion of the budget estimates for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Membe said after completion of the governance review exercise, the next task is for the government to implement APRM report.
“I would like to inform your August House that President Jakaya Kikwete presented Tanzania’s APRM Country Review Report before his peers-fellow APRM Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January, 2013 and the report was unanimously endorsed.
“The Report contains a National Programme of Action (NPoA) that provides a framework on how to deal with identified governance challenges. The task ahead of us is to ensure that the NPoA is implemented,” said the Minister.
Minister Membe informed the Assembly that the governance challenges as identified in the APRM report will be included in the Five Year Development Plan and other Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks and implementations will be through annual budgeting process in the relevant Ministries and Agencies.
In March last year, President Jakaya Kikwete promised the visiting AU-APRM Country Review Mission that was in Tanzania that his government would implement their recommendations in a bid to improve governance in Tanzania.
Meanwhile the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has asked the government to strengthen APRM Tanzania by giving the national institution its own sub vote to be able to finance its activities smoothly. Presenting the opinion of the Committee, Kondoa MP (CCM), Juma Nkamia said the sub vote would help the Mechanism implement its activities according to its schedules.
He said lack of sub vote has constrained the Mechanism to implement some of its activities in time in the past naming them to include implementation of its national wide communication strategy and the governance review process in general.
