Jaji Warioba akifafanua jambo. Picha na Maktaba
Dar es Salaam. Members of the Judge Joseph Warioba-led Constitutional
Review Commission (CRC) were paid Sh250,000 each per day, The Citizen on
Saturday can authoritatively reveal.
But the amount rose to Sh330,000 each for every day
that the 30 commissioners travelled out of Dar es Salaam city, which was
considered their work station.
Judge Warioba declined to confirm or deny the figures
yesterday when the question was put to him by The Citizen on Saturday. All he
would say was that the information was confidential. He did, however, confirm
to our sister publication Mwananchi on Thursday that they earned lower amounts
than what the CA members are receiving.
The Citizen on Saturday independently established that
the commissioners who drafted the first and second draft constitution earned
Sh200,000 as responsibility allowance plus Sh50,000 for “leadership”.
The additional Sh80,000 paid during upcountry trips
was pegged at the current government rate for subsistence allowance, according
to impeccable sources that worked with the CRC team. That would mean CA members
now in Dodoma will pocket more in allowances than CRC members.
Each of the 629 CA members President Jakaya Kikwete
named a week ago will earn Sh300,000 daily for the 70 to 90 days within which
they are expected to have finished fine-tuning the second draft of the
constitution.
The amount paid to CA members is split into Sh220,000
in responsibility allowance and Sh80,000 in subsistence allowance.
This suggests that, more often than not, a CA member
will earn Sh50,000 more in daily pay than what the former PM and AU
Secretary-General, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, were paid when they worked for the
CRC.
The CA members’ allowances will amount to Sh9 million
each per month against Sh7.5 million for the same period earned by each member
of the Warioba commission.
A demand by some CA members to have their allowances
more than doubled to Sh700,000 has plagued the opening days of their meeting
and attracted a public backlash. The unpopular demand was ignited by Mr Richard
Ndasa (Sumve-CCM) who said the cost of living in Dodoma would overwhelm the 201
non-MP delegates.
Mr Ndasa accused the government of favouring the CRC, claiming its members
were paid more than Sh500,000 every day. What they will be paid in Dodoma is
equal to what CRC drivers were paid, he
added.
The push for a raise saw the CA interim chairman, Mr
Pandu Ameir Kificho, pick a committee to chart the way forward. The team, which
began meeting yesterday, comprises Mr William Lukuvi, Mr Freeman Mbowe, Mr Paul
Kimiti, Mr Mohamed Abood Mohamed, Ms Asha Bakari Makame and Ms Jenista Mhagama. Scores of CA members and a cross section of Tanzanians have taken to social
media networks and radio and TV talk shows to rally support for the rejection
of any move to raise the allowances. At the current approved rates, the 629 CA
members will cost the taxpayers Sh189 million a day. They will sit for 70 days,
with the President allowed to give them another 20 days should an extension be
necessary.
The CRC worked for 18 months, with the state providing
transport and other support services for the entire period of their work.
Yesterday, a member of the CRC who requested anonymity said he was shocked
that the CA members had the audacity to blackmail the government into raising
their allowances. “What we are hearing from Dodoma is pathetic and a stab in
the back for the public,” said the commissioner. “I sympathise with the
President, who is being let down by the same people he trusted with a national
calling.” The
CA comprises 201 interest group members nominated by the President, all the
Union MPs and 80 members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.
SRC
The citizen
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