Debate freely key issues, CCM legislators advised

Dodoma. Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai has urged CCM members in Parliament to speak out their minds, when debating issues of national importance.

Mr Ndugai advise this in Parliament yesterday after two MPs from the ruling party raised concern about the status of the country’s economy. Mr Hussein Bashe (Nzega-CCM) and Peter Serukamba (Kigoma North-CCM) warned that Tanzania’s economy was declining, when they were debating the 2018/19 economic framework.

“The Constitution requires that the national economic framework must be debated and passed by Parliament so you should debate it freely…you are not here by mistake,” stressed the Speaker.

“When debating issues of national importance there is no need of partisanship…I am not giving you a chance to speak so that you can only support what is on the table,” he added

Debating, Mr Serukamba said the government had just ‘copied and pasted’ the economic framework for the past three years.

“The government is implementing most of the projects using loans. There is no country in the world, which has managed to build its economy by not involving the private sector. I remember the other time we went to Moscow (Russia) an airport was being constructed by the private sector,” said Mr Serukamba.

For his part, Mr Bashe said personal and commercial loans had decreased something, which suggested Tanzania’s economy wasn’t doing well.

According to him, personal loans have declined by 8.9 per cent, while commercial loans have declined by 25 per cent between 2015/16 and 2016/17.