The Treasury Registrar (TR) Mr. Nehemiah Mchechu has expressed determination to transform the office as a holding company, with the aim of running operations of public entities commercially, so as to increase their performance.
Mr. Mchechu disclosed this during a meeting with editors, which was in tandem with a presentation of the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) implementation report from 2015 to December 2022 in Dar es Salaam, on Thursday.
“These reforms are needed and they will be done for our entities to independently grow, timely remit their dividends and increase their investment capital,” said Mr. Mchechu.
He added: “The goal is to see the entities contribution of their non-tax revenues arrive at 10 per cent of the national budget from the current three per cent.”
According to him, the process of implementing the reforms which is in-line with President Samia Suluhu Hassan's directives was in the final stages.
The TR noted that the plan is to merge the public institutions, organisations and agencies whose operations are similar, so as to increase efficiency. He said the poorly performing entities with critical roles will be placed on the watch list for their improvement.
On the other hand, outdated and underperforming entities will eventually be dissolved, while also stressing that the exercise will be conducted within a year or two. Mr. Mchechu said for the entities that need total restructuring, the process will go up to five years.
Elaborating, he noted that the office of the TR is mandated with the supervision of at least 300 entities of which 248 are owned by the government by 100 per cent, thus they need to carry out such roles with a keen eye for their good productivity.
“There is no reason for private companies to perform well and on the other hand public entities are quite the contrary. We want TTCL to perform well like Vodacom and not depend on government subsidies,” noted the TR.
He observed that some of the entities will critically be assessed; given targets as well as ensuring that they possess the right management. He said the entities will be accorded freedom while taking into account accountability.
“We are going to support the present management but overtime, if they fail to deliver other options will be sought, in some cases the problem is on the nature of management,” he said.
He, however, pointed out that the other plan is to ensure these entities’ operations are carried out openly through engagement with the media, whereby each week two of the entities will have to communicate their work to the media.
“It’s common that only shortfalls of the entities reported in the Controller Auditor General’s Report go round and all the good things are left untold,” stated the TR noting the CAG’s role is to reveal these gaps, but on the other hand the entities have an obligation to notify the people on the critical roles and attained milestones.
Mr. Mchechu revealed that the engagement will give room for firsthand information for people to be able to give their feedback. He also demanded the entities to post their annual financial report on media platforms.
He pledged to meet with the editors next month to give more details of his first 100 days in the office.
When the TR met with the board chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the public institutions, organisations and agencies for the first time in April this year, he expressed concern on the decline in the number of entities that are issuing dividends in recent years.
Statistics show that in the financial year 2019/2021, a total of 236 entities contributed 695.88bn/-, while in 2020/2021 there were 200 entities that issued 477.9bn/- and 2021/2022 only 136 institutions that issued 644.9bn/-.
A number of contributors also declined in the private companies, where the government holds small shares.
According to Mchechu, in 2019/2020, a total of 30 companies contributed 58bn/-, while in 2020/2021 there were 18 companies that issued 159bn/- and 2021/2022 only 14 firms that contributed 204bn/-.
“Despite the decline in the number of contributors, the figure shows that the amount of dividend has been going up,” he said, insisting on the need for all public institutions to ensure they pay dividends accordingly.
Currently the government through TR office has an investment amounting to 70.67tri/- as capital and resources in various public agencies, institutions and statutory corporations within and outside the country.
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