Prime
Why the land sector needs a robust public-private partnership
The public land sector is openly overwhelmed as is demonstrated into the rapidly growing unplanned urban development.
What you need to know:
- Many times when the public sector complains of under performance by private sector companies, the former has not put in place a proper framework to enable the latter to perform well.
December 3 and 4, 2024 witnessed the 5th Annual General Meeting of the Valuers’ Registration Board (VRB) taking place in Dodoma, during the same week that the Ardhi Week was taking place. The Guest of Honour for the VRB was the Minister for Lands, Hon Deogratius Ndejembi (MP). He admitted 34 new valuers to the rank of Fully Registered Valuers (FRV), after which he shared a few words of wisdom with the community of valuers.
The Minister urged the valuers to always express the true value of whatever they are valuing and not be swayed by circumstances of whoever needs the valuation. He decried the few cases where the values expressed by valuers in the private sector diverged significantly from those expressed by the office of the Chief Valuer (CV); and that this could be a source of disputes. The Minister said he was happy to meet the community of valuers any time to listen to their grievances.
This was a positive move since, it can be said with some confidence, that the Ministry of Lands does not see the private sector as partners with whom to work to move the land sector forward. The land sector includes all aspects of land administration, that is: land use planning, land surveying, land allocation, land tenure and registration, land valuation, conveyancing (transfers), land development, land acquisition, compensation and resettlement, land regularisation, land disputes resolution, land use regulation, land taxation, managing land information systems, housing; the list is certainly longer.
The Minister’s remarks on the private valuers echoes his remarks reported in the newspapers of November 8, 2024, this time concerning private surveyors. The Swahili press put it as follows: “Kiama Kampuni za Upimaji Ardhi”, roughly translated into: “Doom for Land Surveying Companies”. The Minister pointed out that he was receiving a lot of complaints against these firms from the wananchi for short-changing them in the formalization exercise.
Clearly, the Minister is unhappy with the performance of the private firms and his stand was echoes the stand of at least four of his predecessor ministers.
This negative attitude towards the private sector is uncalled for. At the international level, the private sector is being called upon to play an increasing role in providing goods ad services that were traditionally in the public sector. The African Union has put in place various frameworks to incentivise the private sector to play a more expansive role in development programmes.
At the national level, the government has a policy on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and is brandishing projects where the private sector is playing or is expected to play a crucial role in development projects; and has put in place a conducive legal and institutional framework to ease this.
The situation, however, appears to be lukewarm in the lands sector; where the private sector is treated with suspicion.
The public land sector is openly overwhelmed as is demonstrated into the rapidly growing unplanned urban development. The land sector is among those where citizens complain of inefficiencies. Given such a situation, it should be proper for the public sector to call upon the private for help: in areas like land use planning, land surveying, land allocation and registration, valuation, and formalisation of areas that have already grown chaotically. The public sector has no resources to deal with this rapid phenomenon of rapid urban development.
On the other hand, the private sector may have resources that can be called upon to come to the rescue. Private sector companies need business; they are looking for investment and other opportunities; they have to make a profit for their shareholders, and make money to pay their employees, and to pay government taxes and other charges. So they are on the ready to perform.
For the private sector to perform well in such areas where the public sector has been dominant, a conducive framework must be put in place. In particular, the public sector must develop performance models, where the private sector is told exactly what it must do, what the performance benchmarks are and how it will eventually be paid. If there is money to be legally made, the private sector will jump in.
Many times when the public sector complains of under performance by private sector companies, the former has not put in place a proper framework to enable the latter to perform well.
Given that Tanzania has both a PPP Policy as well as PPP legislation, it is time that the Ministry of Lands came forward with models that will make it possible for the private sector help the public land sector in fulfilling its duties.
