Africa-Press – Tanzania. AS Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) continues maintaining a steady monthly growth of revenues in the past six months, Works and Transport Minister Prof Makame Mbarawa has tasked the management to collect above 1tri/- in annual revenue.
The previous financial year (2020/21), the authority collected 910bn/-, up from 900bn/- earned in 2019/20.
Prof Mbarawa said he would re-introduce performance-based contract for top officials of the authority to have a commitment of pushing up the revenue collection.
When he served in the same ministry during the fifth-phase government, Prof Mbarawa introduced such a performance-based contract at the TPA.
“I want each one of you to sign performance-based agreement, and one of the key performance indicators would be revenue collection. I want you to collect above 1tri/-,” Prof Mbarawa emphasized yesterday in Dar es Salaam when he visited the TPA headquarters.
Prof Mbarawa said ports play a big role as the country’s economic backbone, therefore his emphasis would be on performance.
“On performance I will be very harsh. TPA has a big role to play, let everyone of you meet his or her obligations. Let’s work hard so that people could see changes,” he told the top management.
In ensuring that targeted revenue collection is achieved, the minister underlined the need for improving equipment for the ports and recruiting the right manpower.
On the other hand, Prof Mbarawa ordered immediate start of work to deepen the entry channel of the Dar es Salaam Port from the current depth of 11 metres to 14 or 15 metres to enable the port accommodate bigger vessels.
He said the ongoing Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP) for port expansion has managed to deepen the port’s seven berths, making them have a depth of 14.5 metres, but the entry channel remained with the same depth.
“We can’t let the entry channel have 11-metre depth while berths have 14.5 metres. The entry channel is the gateway to the port; it must also be deepened,” he stated.
The minister was informed that a process had already started to start dredging the entry channel, a project which would cost 219bn/-.
The contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), will be implementing the project.
Prof Mbarawa directed the contractor to complete the project within 15 months.
Project Manager, Lyu Wei told the minister that from Monday next week they would start doing groundwork as they wait for a project approval certificate.
Mr Wei assured Prof Mbarawa that they would work day and night so that the project completes within the agreed period.
On his part, TPA Director General, Eric Hamissi expressed commitment to implementing the minister’s directives, particularly on performance.
He said improving performance, especially in the area of revenue collection, was given serious attention, something which enabled the authority to record a monthly increase of revenue collection.
Mr Hamissi noted that last month’s collection reached 107bn/- which was above the initial target of collecting 104bn/-, surpassing the target by 111 per cent.
