For the first time in the history of the Singida district council, the full council meeting turned into a commotion after CCM and Chadema councillors met to discuss and pass the 2011/12 district council budget.
While the CCM councillors passed the budget, their counterparts objected claiming the standing council regulations were intentionally violated.
Special Seats legislators Christowaja Mtinda and Christina
Mughwai (Chadema) led by Singida East MP Tundu Lisu (Chadema) objected to the endorsement of the budget.
They wanted previous budgets to be evaluated first as a condition for fulfilling the standing district council regulations.
They also said the councillors should have all reports and documents not less than seven days before the meeting so that they would have sufficient time to read and go through them instead of finding them in the meeting room on the meeting day.
Lisu said it was important for the budget to be discussed in the meeting given its importance in the development of the district.
“Conflicts will never help our council to develop. Anger, ridicule and booing at one another will not help us. The regulations are clear; how come we want to act as if we don’t know them? This is not good for our council,” said Lisu.
The commotion started especially after the vice chairperson of the council, Hinga Mnyawi, presented the budget which was supported by all CCM councillors.
The CCM councillors were hitting at tables and booing at Chadema councillors each time the latter stood up to question about certain sections of the regulations and guidelines of the district council.
Despite frequent objections and interruptions, as well as Chadema making efforts to call for the Minister for Administration and Local Government for elaboration, the chairperson, Celestine Yunde, ignored it and asked for those who were ready to pass the budget.
All CCM councillors put their hands up in support of the budget, while those of Chadema refused to pass the budget saying those who endorsed the budget did so without knowing what they were doing.
However, after the full council ended, the Chadema councillors met with journalists to explain their intention to take the matter to the people saying all CCM councillors who endorsed the budget were betraying voters.
Lisu said they would go to every village to explain to people about the violation of the regulations by CCM councillors, saying what they did showed that they were not there for the interests of the people but their own.
Furthermore, he said he would request the office of the Auditor and Controller General to audit the Singida district to find out if there was any misappropriation of public funds.
He said further that he would forward the complaints to the Minister for Regional Administration and Local Government to explain about the violation of the district council’s regulations and the matter would also be taken to the next National Assembly.
For his part, district executive director Joseph Sabore said there was no violation of any regulations and that all regulations guiding the conduct of the full council had been observed.
The full council of Singida district has 64 CCM members, while Chadema has six members only, three of them being ward councillors.
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