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By:
Nation | |||||||||
| Posted:
Apr,03-2016 18:39:47
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NEW YORK, Saturday
Tanzania will decide what steps to take in order to get nearly half-a-billion dollars in suspended aid, a US official has said.
"The Government of Tanzania needs to determine how it will rectify the specific issues of concern," Renee Kelly, spokeswoman for the Millennium Challenge Corporation said in an email message.
"It is up to MCC's Board to determine if any such actions taken by the Government of Tanzania are sufficient to warrant re-instatement."
The MCC board announced on March 28 that it was suspending a $473 million deal with Tanzania, partly on the grounds that the March 20 election in Zanzibar was unfair.
The US Government agency also objected to limits that Tanzanian authorities placed on free speech and association through the country's Cyber Crimes Act.
Ms Kelly did not respond to questions as to whether resumption of aid was predicated on Tanzania organising a new poll in Zanzibar and making changes in the Act. "MCC does not provide checklists," she wrote in an earlier email to the Nation.
At stake is a US-funded plan intended to expand access to reliable electricity and help Tanzania implement "ambitious plan to reform the energy sector".
In 2012, Tanzania was deemed potentially eligible for the $473 million aid.
The country had previously received a $698 million MCC grant that financed projects in the transport, energy and water sectors.
That initial five-year agreement with Tanzania --concluded in 2013--was the largest approved by MCC since its establishment in 2004.
Tanzania's status as a favoured recipient of US aid is in jeopardy as a result of the decision.
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