Resource Contracts Secrecy vis-à-vis the People’s Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources: A Legal Analysis of Tanzania’s Extractive Industry

This paper examines the implications of resource contract secrecy on the people’s right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources (PSNR). It is estimated that governments around the world undertake public contracts worth US$9.5 trillion annually. Extractive contracts particularly affect the lives of about 3.5 billion people globally. Nevertheless, public contracts remain top government secrets in most countries, including Tanzania. While the government of Tanzania has taken a progressive approach to protect its natural resources interests through several PSNR instruments, it has simultaneously limited the exercise of that right by the people by denying them access to extractive resource contracts. Considering the country’s high levels of corruption, this paper concludes that contract secrecy is a corruption hideout which may compound the mismanagement of extractive resources. Thus, proactive disclosure of resource contracts and the re-enactment of powers of Parliament to review and endorse extractive contracts before their signing are proposed.