Dar es Salaam:  The Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr  Samuel Sitta, yesterday spoke of the need for Parliament to educate the public on its roles to avoid unnecessary blame or criticism directed to Members of Parliament.

Mr Sitta told The Citizen that not all people, organisations or institutions seemed to be aware of powers and privileges of Parliament when discharging its duties as an independent pillar of the State.  Reacting on allegations by civil society groups who have criticized the National Assembly over the handling of sensitive national issues, Mr Sitta said Parliament has done its work and cannot BE interfere by other State organs.

He said under the principle of separation of powers, its up to the executive to take action, but Parliament does not have that mandate. "Lets use wisdom in judging things and not to act on some people's wishes while we have principles to follow. We can not discuss one thing until the end of the world, while there are other important issues to deal with," said Mr Sitta.

Activist groups on Wednesday, accused the MPs of betraying public trust by not debating the Richmond, Kiwira coal mine scandals, Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) and Tanzania International Container Terminal Service (Ticts).   Led by the Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct), officials, the groups said they have been saddened by the MPS for not holding the government accountable on the scandals.

The officials also noted that the government failed to present the TRL and Ticts reports as MPs had earlier demanded, as well as report on environment and human rights abuses in North Mara and Loliondo in Ngorongoro districts.   This, they felt was compromising the Parliament's independence at the expense the national good.  

Mr Sitta said many of these matters are being dealt by the government and MPs can not take any action on the issues.  "Parliament has rejected the government report on TRL and Loliondo saga, and the government has been asked to bring a full report of implementation to the House in April. What do want us to do more than that," asked Mr Sitta.

He said the Kiwira coal mine was confiscated from the investors and taken by the government, while the audit of Sh17 billions continues.

The group of activists said they would organise countrywide demonstrations to protest the manner in which Parliament handled the just ended session during which debate on Richmond scandal and Kiwira saga were stopped. But yesterday, the civil society groups said: "Our view is that Parliament has failed to implement its constitutional responsibility to hold the government accountable.