THE Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned six government institutions and departments to furnish it with details on the country’s national debt.
Latest data by the Bank of Tanzania
(BoT) indicate that the debt has continued to rise over the past years,
reaching about 42trl/- by the end of December, last year.
According to the Central Bank, external
debt stood at 15.408 billion US dollars while domestic borrowing
ballooned to 8.897 trillion/- during the period under review.
Government Institutions and departments
to appear before the parliamentary committee include the BoT, the
Planning Commission and the Treasury Registrar Office, according to PAC
Vice-Chairperson Aeshi Hilaly (Sumbawanga Urban-CCM).
Also on the list are Policy Analysis
Department, External Finance Department and the Accountant General
Office, all falling under the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
PAC moved to summon the institutions
yesterday after it failed to get satisfactory explanation during a
meeting with officials from the Accountant General Department led by its
Head, Mr Francis Mwakapilila.
“We find it wise to call upon all these
departments to appear before the committee since the Accountant General
Department does not have response to a number of issues we have raised,”
Mr Hilaly told journalists.
He added: “The parliamentary committee
could have received such explanation from a single institution namely
the Debt Management Department but this office is yet to become
operational.”
No date has been set for the meeting so
far but the institutions are required to appear before the committee
ahead of the Budget Session of the National Assembly slated to commence
on April 19, this year in Dodoma.
Earlier, the committee directed the
Accountant General Department to work jointly with the Directorate of
Government Assets Management (DGAM) to verify all government possessions
before the interim period prior to the International Public Sector
Accountancy Standards (IPSAS) Accrual Basis 2017.
The IPSAS Accrual Basis enables
accountants to include aspects such as assets, liabilities, revenue,
expenses and equity in their financial reports while compiling reports
for respective departments.
The committee also instructed the
department to make final touches on establishment of a risk disaster
recovery site for risk management purposes
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