EDITORIAL: ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION MUST PAY UTILITY BILLS
Late or non-payment of utility bills by public entities is becoming common in Tanzania, presidential directives to the contrary having had no significant change. Government institutions still owe huge payments to various utility bodies – with the water and electricity utilities being the most affected.
This is a problem that should have been surmounted in 2017 when the late President John Magufuli ordered disconnection of electricity and water services for defaulting customers.
Four years on since then, we are still overwhelmed by the same problem. It is indeed a disgrace that needs to be ended sooner than later – if only because it adversely impacts the utility suppliers and other operators and Tanzanians who depend on the services.
Lately, Singida Regional Commissioner Binilith Mahenge called upon public institutions to cultivate the culture and habit of paying bills in full and on time. He also asked for a list of defaulting institutions – and the reasons why they do not pay their bills in full and on time.
This is despite the fact that public institutions do have budgetary allocations for their utility needs, and there is no earthly reason to default on payments – perhaps after diverting the funds to other uses. Under normal circumstances, bills defaulters are threatened with disconnections from utility supplies
But some “sensitive” customers are spared the embarrassment of disconnections even as they continue to default on their bills payments. This amounts to double standards on the part of the utility suppliers – which calls for a review of the current situation and come up with a win-win situation all-round.
When a utility supplier is starved of resources, it cannot improve its services – let alone expand its networks to the under-unserved.
Some public institutions should not be untouchable when it comes to paying bills as and when due.
‘KIZAZI KIPYA’ PROJECT LAUDABLE
Tanzania and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have indeed come far in terms of cooperation and other developmental relationships in the best interests of both. This is why representatives of the US and Tanzania governments met in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday to celebrate USAID’s achievements in Tanzania – with particular regard to the agency’s Kizazi Kipya (New Generation) project.
This was a five-year, $163.3 million USAID/PEPFAR-funded project which enabled 1.2 million Tanzanian orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) – as well as young people affected by HIV and about 470,000 caregivers – “to utilize age-appropriate HIV-related and other services intended to improve the care, health, nutrition, education, protection, livelihoods, psycho-social wellbeing and their overall quality of life.”
Tanzania is today home to some 3.2 million OVC cases, while “a quarter of all five-to-14-year old children are working – some in the worst forms of child labour”. This is as unfortunate as it is unacceptable in this day and age of rapid socioeconomic advances, and interventions to rectify matters – and more – by the likes of USAID are most welcome indeed.
As the USAID Tanzania Mission director Veeraya (Kate) Somvongsiri said: “..when children are healthy, they will have the requisite foundational skills to become productive”.
