LAZARO NYALANDU AND PARLIAMENT COMMITEE ON TOURISM HOTELS

Arusha. A parliamentary committee is angered that the minister for Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu has been holding talks with hotel owners ostensibly to reach a consensus with them on what bed occupancy rates should be.

The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Tourism chairman, Mr James Lembeli, has raised the alarm over the meeting which the minister held recently in Arusha with the hoteliers.

Mr Lembeli said the committee will report the minister to the Speaker, Ms Anne Makinda, over the negotiations which he said contravened a resolution of the National Assembly that required the approved rates to be applied without delay.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr Adelhem Meru, confirmed the meeting but said it yielded no fruit.

“There was no agreement... they were lamenting that the new rates are high and what we did was to receive their suggestions. The turnout at the meeting was also not good,” said Dr Meru.

Sources told me that the hotel owners are petitioning the government to pay between seven to $15 per client per night instead of the new rate between $35 and $50.

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Parliament was early this month told that the government was losing an average of Sh2 billion a month over failure by the ministry to gazette the new rates as contained in a court ruling last September.

Mr Nyalandu told Parliament then that the new changes would be gazzetted not later than February 15 but that has not been done.

“We’re shocked on how this ministry is operating. He (Nyalandu) was the one who made the February 15 promise but he is now negotiating with hotel owners instead of taking the right actions,” said Mr Lembeli.

“Minister Nyalandu is going against the Parliament and High Court’s ruling, he was tasked to execute the new formula and not holding a bargaining meeting. We can’t let him get away with it.”

Shadow minister for natural resources and tourism Rev Peter Msigwa said Mr Nyalandu should quit the dillydallying and gazette the new formula as soon as possible.

“Seventeen companies lodged a case against the government and the judge ruled in our favour but today the minister who is vested with the powers to execute the order is not doing so, what is this? I believe there’s more to it than sees the eye, there are many thing that we are are yet to know,” he said.