TPDC MINIMUM SALARY SET FOR SH5.4M

By Ludger Kasumuni,The Citizen Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is proposing new salaries and allowances that would make even its middle-level employees the envy of some of the highest remunerated Tanzanian chief executive officers.

Documents seen by The Citizen show that TPDC wants its lowest paid office attendants and drivers to earn Sh5.4 million and the topmost CEO Sh36 million every month.

Middle level cadres and managers will be paid between Sh12.6 million to Sh28 million, if the proposals filed with the Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (Ewura) are approved.

Besides than the ceiling breaking salaries, the public agency has budgeted billions of shillings in staff bonuses, sitting, training, responsibility and utility, mileage, insurance allowances and many more perks for the employees who would become the highest paid public workers in the country. 

 TPDC filed the proposals in September under a business plan for the processing and transportation of liquefied gas from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam. The agency has defended the perks on grounds that they were applicable in the lucrative gas and oil sector.

But the proposals have been strongly objected to by the Ewura Consumer Consultative Council that has termed the payments “outrageous and unrealistic.”

The council has filed its objection with Ewura too as required under law to allow for public consultations. It has argued that the plan by TPDC would lead to a tariff dispute as the unchecked expenses are likely to result in a higher and expensive tariff out of reach for a majority Tanzanians and local businesses.

The expenditure plan would raise suspicions as the open public forums to discuss the tariff proposal by TPDC were not publicized as others before it and the addendums containing the huge perks were not circulated to stakeholders.

 Yesterday, The Citizen learnt that the TPDC plan was raising quite some concern in both public and private sector circles. It was being viewed as an example of public gluttony that could sabotage benefits that may accrue to the larger public from the gas resource.

Efforts to contact the management to shed more light were fruitless by the time of filing this report.    

Speaking to The Citizen, Ewura communications manager, Mr Titus Kaguo, said the hearing session for the application was conducted earlier this month, and that the regulator was still working on the financial implication of the proposals before making a decision.

In the TPDC letter signed by its marketing director Ms Joyce Kisamo, TPDC requests the regulator to approve a tariff of  $4.178/mmBtu (Sh714/mmBtu). In the letter dated September 1, TPDC indicates that the planned commencement of the project for natural gas transportation and processing is January 1, 2015.

In its application, TPDC proposes hefty allowances to board members and employees on special duties at a minimum annual budget of Sh150 million and a maximum of Sh3 billion.

CREDIT SOURCE: THE CITIZEN