Uproar over Udom takeover

Dodoma. The government yesterday had to be on the defensive over its decision to move ministerial offices to University of Dodoma (Udom) buildings.

Opposition lawmakers charged that the move was proof that the government was not well prepared to move its seat from Dar es Salaam.

According to some opposition MPs, the influx of government officials into Udom premises will have adverse impact on the learning environment.

It all started during the Question and Answer session when Ms Suzan Lyimo (Special Seats-Chadema) fired a supplementary question to the Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training: “Udom has been a success story. It’s a facility that can accommodate up to 40,000 students, but now the government is changing the use of the university’s infrastructure, and that is like taking our student’s into a lion’s den cause for sure some of these government officials will lure the students… what is the government saying about this?”

In response, the deputy minister for Education, Science and Technology and Vocational Training, Ms Stella Manyanya, said the government will use the Udom buildings temporarily as plans to put up new offices are underway.

“The buildings that are going to be occupied by the government as of now are not in any way used by the university. Therefore, our presence will not affect the academic environment,” she said.

The response was supported by the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, National Assembly, Employment, Youth and People with Disabilities), Ms Jenista Mhagama, whose office is coordinating the government shift to Dodoma.

According to her, the ruling party, CCM, and its government have always been generous to Udom and the use of the some of the university’s facilities will actually promote the university.

“CCM donated the Chimwaga Hall to Udom and that is how the university started. There’s no way our party and the government will put the university in harm’s way. We’re going to use the buildings that are currently unoccupied, and I want to assure all Tanzanians that the shift to Dodoma is happening and nothing is going to stop us,” she said.

However, her answer was met with boos from the Opposition.

At the end of the Q&A session, Rev Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban-Chadema) sought chair’s guidance and argued that the government answers on the matter were not satisfactory.

“We passed the 2016/17 Budget right here and there was no mention of the move to Dodoma. This is a political move and it is not economically viable,” he said.

However, House chairperson Najma Giga ruled that the government answers were satisfactory and challenged MPs to move their permanent residences to Dodoma as well.

Already two ministries have moved into Udom buildings.

These are the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) and the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Meanwhile, the ministries of Health and Education are expected to follow suit soon.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Information, Culture, Art and Sport is also moving to Dodoma.

A notice to the public issued by the ministry says that starting from today (February 2) they would vacate their city centre premises and relocate to the National Stadium office space in Dar es Salaam.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Prof Elisante Ole Gabriel confirmed this to The Citizen yesterday. However, the PS said that the Information Service Department (Maelezo) would remain at its current premises until further notice.

Prof Ole Gabriel said that the primary issue is that the government is preparing to move to Dodoma and, as a ministry, it must follow suit.

“We have so far moved our main offices into the LAPF building’s eighth floor. Many of the ministry’s activities have been moved there,” said Prof Ole Gabriel, adding: “The minister, the deputy minister, the permanent secretary and the deputy secretary have already moved to Dodoma.”

He, however, dismissed any thought that the ministry has moved from its former offices in efforts to cut government expenditures and noted: “If that were true, we wouldn’t move the ministry’s main offices into the LAPF Building in Dodoma.”

He added that even the Information Service Centre is currently an NSSF tenant.