Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government is reviewing the legislation controlling cooperative unions, to ensure that effective operations and assets of the unions are protected and operationalised by members themselves.
The move aims at ensuring that cooperatives are free from any external interference, including leaders from the executive arm of the country.
This was said by the Minister for Agriculture Professor Adolf Mkenda at the weekend during the commemoration of the International Day of Cooperatives held in Tabora region at the national level.
Themed “Rebuild better together”, the day was graced by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, where Prof Mkenda took time to explain how government officials were not supposed to meddle into issues of cooperatives in the country.
“Joining into cooperatives is just an optional matter and no one is supposed to force people to be part of them because this is not an institution of the executive, and in this regard, the government’s discretionary powers are limited and they have boundaries,’’ he said.
Prof Mkenda said no government official had powers whatsoever to issue directives on how money raised by members in the cooperative unions should be spent.
Instead, he advised, members should remain firm in supervising all assets and funds owned by cooperatives, without any external interference that is contrary to the law.
“It is strictly prohibited to see any public official issuing directives to cooperatives on how they should spend their money,’’ he insisted.
However, the Agriculture Minister said as per the law, the government had its responsibility to ensure that all Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS)’s and Savings and Credit Co-operative Society (SACCOS)’s are run smoothly by their leaders because they have many members whose money should be protected.
“Our duty within the government is ensuring that laws are abided by, and leaders of cooperative unions should be responsible to their members,’’ he insisted, adding that all decisions should be transparent by engaging members and not a group of a few people within cooperatives.
Prof Mkenda further added that the government would continue making continuous follow ups to ensure that cooperatives in the country are run professionally; transparent and ensuring that leaders remain responsible to their members.
The International Day of Cooperatives ought to be celebrated on the first Saturday of July every year. It was first celebrated under the auspices of the United Nations in 2005.
The aim of the International Day is to increase awareness of cooperatives and promote the movement’s successes and ideals of international solidarity, economic efficiency, equality, and world peace.
The International Day also aims to strengthen and extend partnerships between the international cooperative movement and other actors, including governments, at local, national and international levels.
