The culture of sitting allowances in Tanzania

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I was doing research on elephantiasis in Kibiti in the early nineties, in those days it took a good three hours by road to reach Kibiti from Dar

This culture of sitting allowance is now slowly changing especially for training workshops-the reason is why pay someone when they are receiving something akin to continuous education for their own benefit, thus its now referred as either transport allowance or lunch allowance (though a heavy, unhealthy lunch is invariably served) and this terminology looks more dignified. However this transport allowance is a flat rate not reflecting the distance or means of transport used. In most cases they use office transport and the distance could be a few steps to some kilometers. It is also common that some high-ranking officers register for these workshops, disappear the whole time (perhaps to go back to work), and return to have lunch and/or collect the allowance. Another culture is to invite some senior officer (mostly a minister or his deputy) to open the meeting. In this case (s)he will read the prepared and doctored speech verbatim and immediately leave the meeting. This would earn him/her two envelops-one for the speech and one as sitting allowance cum transport cum lunch allowance. This is how donors’ funds are put to use. Why donors and aid agencies are not questioning his practice? I have raised this question and the reply was simple-no reason to rock the boat because the paperwork is in order.

The culture of sitting allowances in Tanzania

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