TREASURY DEPUTY PERMANENT SECRETARY GRILLED OVER 48BN/- 'STIMULUS PACKAGE' SPENDING

Deputy Permanent Secretary (Treasury Services)
in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ms.
Doroth Mwanyika.

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday grilled the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Treasury Services) in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ms Doroth Mwanyika, over expenditure of 48bn/- stimulus package for rescuing businesses affected by the 2008 global financial and economic crisis.

The money was disbursed by the government to the ministry as part of its initiative to launch the stimulus package. However, a list of individuals who benefited from the loss compensation and loan rescheduling facility is still unknown.

Yesterday, when presenting the ministry’s annual financial reports before the watchdog committee, Mrs Mwanyika found herself in hot soup when an MP queried the whereabouts of the Stimulus Package.

Vwawa Lawmaker Japhet Hasunga (CCM), sought clarification from the ministry, charging that despite releasing the funds, the government was not provided with related procedures regarding accountability of the funds.

Following a query by an MP, the Committee’s Chairperson, Ms Naghenjwa Kaboyoka (Same East-CHADEMA), demanded that Ms Mwanyika respond before her committee.

According to Ms Mwanyika, the money was paid to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) via her ministry, adding that its expenditure was, however, still in a limbo.

“The former permanent secretary (PS) was working on the matter to substantiate how the money was spent and while the current PS is still working on the matter,’’ she said.

According to her, the report concerning that matter would be delivered before the committee in the next meeting.

In another development, the ministry was asked by the committee to explain how it spent 10bn/- in the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Arusha in June 2012.

Tanzania spent over 10bn/- in the preparations for the AfDB event that attracted nearly 3,000 delegates from the Francophone, Anglophone and Arabic speaking African states that saw 200 international journalists thronging the Northern Zone.

The chairman of the organising committee was Mr Ngosha Said Magonya. On Thursday, MPs said the taxpayers’ money spent for the event did not correspond with the event itself and demanded that the ministry explain the benefits that Tanzania got from the meeting.

According to the Ministry’s Assistant Commissioner for External Finance (Regional Cooperation) , Ms Judica Omary, the event was very important for the country’s economy and that the ministry was caught by surprise over the event.

Daily News