TOP PANGANI, UJIJI OFFICIALS SUSPENDED

Minister of State in the President’s Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Governments, Mr Suleiman Jaffo.

The Pangani and Kigoma - Ujiji District Executive Directors (DEDs) were suspended on Tuesday  in compliance with a directive issued by President John magufuli.

The suspension was announced by the Minister of State in the President’s Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Governments, Mr Suleiman Jaffo. It was prompted by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) issuing qualified (unsatisfactory) audit reports for them.

Dr Magufuli also instructed the Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, to convene a meeting with all ministers to discuss and address concerns and recommendations highlighted in the CAG audit reports for the 2016/2017 financial year.

Speaking after receiving annual audit reports for that financial year, the Head of State assured the CAG, Prof Mussa Assad, that responsible state organs would act decisively on all the recommendations of the major oversight organ.

“The two district executive directors should be suspended pending further investigations; we must take actions on issues raised by the CAG. I believe that Prof Assad’s office did not implicate the councils out of malice,” he stated. President Magufuli voiced the sentiments at the State House in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, after receiving the audit reports. The report covers the central government, local government authorities, public organisations and development projects, among others.

Generally, the Head of State was impressed that the rate of qualified (satisfactory) audit reports had increased during the year under review, standing at 96 per cent in parastatal organisations, 90 per cent in local government authorities and 86 per cent in central governments.

Briefing the President earlier, Prof Assad explained that 140 local government authorities had failed to remit 116bn/- in revenues, the equivalent to 22 per cent of their incomes. “There were also agents who did not remit 3.5bn/- which they had collected in revenues; this can be blamed on poor supervision on the part of the local authorities.

Why shouldn’t they remit the funds which they collected?” he queried. According to Prof Assad, his office, the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) had issued a total of 561 audits reports, out of which 502 were satisfactory, representing 90 per cent of all the reports while 45 of them were unsatisfactory.

The CAG mentioned another area of concern as failure by some local government authorities to submit 379 books containing financial records, which made it impossible for his office to audit their records. Premier Majaliwa assured President Magufuli that all issues contained in the audit report and recommendations by parliamentary committees would be addressed seriously.

“The good news is that there are some achievements in many areas and shortcomings in fewer ones,” he explained. Speaking at the occasion, the Chairperson of parliamentary Local Authorities Accounts Committee (LAAC), Mr Vedasto Ngombale, expressed concern over dishonest officials in local government authorities continuing to swindle funds. Ngombale asked the central government to provide enough funds, to enable the parliamentary committee inspect development projects in local authorities.

The Chairperson of Parliamentary Budget Committee, Ms Hawa Ghasia, requested for more funds for the CAG to enable the office conduct audits in many local councils, noting that there were still cases of embezzlement in areas which were not audited by the NAOT. Ms Ghasia called for stern actions against all officials who had been proven to have misused public fund.

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