CAG, Ludovick Utouh.
Dar es Salaam. As Ludovick Utouh retires from the post of Controller and Auditor General (CAG), the huge question looms: who will succeed him in one of the country’s most powerful jobs? Mr Utouh’s tenure ends officially on Friday.
According to details gathered by The Citizen, names of three respected Tanzanians are poping up as potential successors, but only one of them would be appointed by President Jakaya Kikwete.
Impeccable sources told The Citizen that Mr Pius Maneno, Ms Blandina Nyoni and Prof Mussa Assad are being considered for the big, challenging job that will make them Tanzania’s sixth CAG.
Dr Assad also chairs the governing boards/councils of National Board of Accountants and Auditors, National Bank of Commerce (NBC) and the Muslim University of Morogoro.
He is furthermore a member/trustee of the National Social Security Fund, Higher Education Students Loans Board and Tanzania Fertilizer Company Limited.
Prof Assad has undertaken major consultancy projects in public sector finance, business planning, financial modeling, education expenditure reviews, higher education financing, and so forth) at ministerial, international, multilateral and bilateral organisations, as well as a number of major public firms.
He has trained extensively on accounting and management and authored two textbooks and published extensively.
Ms Nyoni is the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and was suspended over claims of misuse of her position in the civil service. However, she was subsequently cleared alongside Mr David Jairo, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. She had previously been PS of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Besides PS being her topmost post, Ms Nyoni was had also served as Accountant General, had also been a lecturer at the Institute of Development and Management, now Mzumbe University together with Mr Utouh.
Before working as Permanent Secretary, she was a commissioner at the Tanzania Revenue Authority as a commissioner.
Mr Maneno is currently the executive director of the NBAA and also serves as chairman of the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange governing council and the board of the Institute of Directors – Tanzania among others.
He is also a board member at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) and holds a Master of Accounting (MAcc) degree, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management as well as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Certificate. The Citizen does understand that President Kikwete also have the opportunity to go beyond the three touted names to appoint Mr Utouh’s successor.
What’s Utouh’s legacy?
Mr Utouh, the fifth CAG in the history of independent Tanganyika/Tanzania, was appointed in 2006 to become the country’s third local CAG after Mr Mohamed Aboud who held the post from 1969 to 1996 and Mr Thomas Kiama (1996 to 2005).
Prior to the three, independent Tanganyika had had two CAGs in the names of Mr R.W.A. McColl who held the position from 1961 to 1963 and Mr Gordon Hutchinson who served as CAG from 1964 to 1969.
Before his appointment, Mr Utouh was working with the NBAA and prior to that he was a lecturer at the Institute of Development Management, currently Mzumbe University.
Mr Utouh leaves behind a string of achievements and challenges. Many will remember him for being a man who has done a good job for the nation. It is probably during his tenure as controller and auditor general that reports from his office started to be debated in Parliament.
It was during Mr Utouh’s tenure - and under the directive of President Jakaya Kikwete – that CAG reports, which started to be published on a timely manner, became public documents.It was also during Mr Utouh’s tenure that the CAG’s office joined the United Nations Board of Auditors, (UNBoA). That created openings for some officials from the CAG’s office – in collaboration with their fellow experts in UK and China – started working on some assignments under the UN.
This saw Tanzanian auditors being spread all over the world including to Afghanistan, the Democratic of Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Sudan, Denmark, Myanmar and New York City in the United States, among others. This also went in line with his plea to see the government improving remunerations for national auditors.
However, Mr Utouh might also be retiring an unhappy man. This is because his good job may have been frustrated by a lack of action on the government side. He was like a person who published numerous reports—which mostly revealed how public monies were being misused at local government levels—but with no concrete action being taken by the government against those who were implicated in the reports.He will also be remembered for the role he played in unearthing the swindling of billions of shillings at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) in what came to be known as EPA scandal which resulted in the sacking of former BoT governor, Daudi Balali.
The audit report, sanctioned by the CAG covering BoT’s 2005/2006 financial books, revealed that 13 companies used falsified records and claimed third party status and received BoT payments, while nine companies couldn’t substantiate payments they received.
President Kikwete then revoked Balali’s appointment after he received a damning audit report prepared by the global accounting firm, Ernest and Young, that revealed more than $116 million had been improperly paid to 22 firms through BoT’s external payment arrears account (EPA) in one financial year alone. But on the other hand, Mr Utouh is on record as having given a clean record in the investigation involving former Energy and Minerals Permanent Secretary David Jairo over allegations of corruption and misuse of public funds.
Mr Jairo was suspended after Mrs Beatrice Shellukindo (Kilindi-CCM) claimed in Parliament that he had solicited Sh50 million from each of least 20 institutions within the ministry to finance endorsement of the Ministry’s 2011/2012 budget.
The man or woman who will fill the vacancy that will be created by Mr Utouh departure will also face a number of challenges – including the ongoing investigations on the acquisition of IPTL by PAP and how the new company withdrew money from the BoT’s escrow account.
The Citizen
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