The
revelation that Tanzanian MPs voted themselves a $98,000 (£60,000) package each
to be paid at the end of their parliamentary term has led to shock.
The
send-off money, a 274% increase on the amount MPs received in 2010, was
endorsed by the treasury at the end of last year, but only reported this week.
"The
total sum is enough to build a hospital," one resident told the BBC.
An
opposition party leader said it showed a root-and-branch reform of government
finances was needed.
James
Mbatia said Tanzania had lost the values of its founding father and first
leader Julius Nyerere.
"During
the Nyerere era, [we] had an ideology as a nation - about how we value the
dignity of a human being," the MP and chairman of the NCCR Maguezi told
the BBC.
Economist
Vincent Leyaro said the move would increase the burden to the taxpayers at a
time the government was struggling to raise revenue and was mired in debt
estimated at $25bn.
"If
this is not curbed by cutting government spending, it will be a problem which
will harm the economy and people's living standards," the economics
lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam told the BBC's Focus on Africa
radio programme.
The MPs'
move would also set a bad precedent, with other civil servants thinking that
they should be entitled to more money from the government and ultimately the
taxpayer, he said.
The BBC's
Basil Mbakile in Dar es Salaam says the news has shocked people in the city who
read about it in Thursday's
edition of the Citizen newspaper.
One man
said the MPs' generosity to themselves was "amazing".
"There
is no money in the government. We fail to understand what's going on," he
told the BBC.
Tanzania's
375 MPs already receive a monthly salary of almost $7,000.
They also
receive $22,200 a year for attending parliamentary sessions and an annual care
allowance of about $13,000.
Source:BBC News
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