CCM wants leaders’ accounts probed

DAILY NEWS Reporters

CCM wants leaders’ accounts probed CHAMA Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has called upon the government to probe the account of the chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee as well as those responsible for overseeing the expenditure of public institutions that face allegations of fraud.

The party has also called for special audits in all public institutions and ministries which have been blamed over misuse of public funds and those found should be taken to task.

Addressing a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, CCM Spokesperson, Mr Christopher Ole Sendeka, said the chairperson’s personal accounts should be audited to check for the correlation between their incomes and their account balances.

He made the remarks in connection with the current Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the financial year ending June 2015, which had discovered irregularities in the major sky city project at Kigamboni - a joint venture project between the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Azimio Housing Estate.

According to the report, a valuation in the contract had indicated that an acre was valued at 800m/-, but a fresh valuation by NSSF found out that the acre was valued at a mere 25m/- and the project was covering 20,000 acres. “The current hatred for the government shown by Zitto Kabwe in fighting corruption shocks me.

He was once the chairperson of one of the committees that dealt with such moves. I am surprised to note that he is fighting in defence of the interests of some of these institutions’ top leaders who are his close friends,” said Mr Sendeka.

He said it is high time for the government not to deal with disciplining the finance officers of the institutions only, but also the committees and their chairpersons. He, however, noted that some dishonest businesspersons are not happy with the current president’s move to fight corruption through collection of taxes.

They claim that he is transmitting false information to foreign and local publications thereby ruining the image of the country. “Two foreign newspapers have been publishing such articles on payment from a businessperson to tarnish the good image of the government. What worries me most is that there are two other local tabloids that have taken the lead to disrupt the country’s image, something which is not good for national unity,” he charged.

The CCM Spokesperson pointed out that the government has responded to one of the foreign newspapers’ claims and threatens to expose the local tabloids. Responding to the Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) leader and last year general election opposition presidential candidate and former Prime Minister, Mr Edward Lowassa, who recently gave his evaluation of one year since the last general election among which he had described public office as a ‘miserable’ place to work for.

Mr Sendeka said public offices will only be a ‘miserable’ place to work only to those who do not want to abide by public office ethics and conduct. He added that the fifth phase government intends to restore public office ethics.

Reacting as to why the CCM Chairman, who is also the President of Tanzania, Dr John Magufuli, is not travelling abroad, Mr Sendeka said the president’s decision aims at strengthening internal affairs and it is one of his austerity measures to cut down on unnecessary government expenditure.

“I want to assure those who question why the president does not travel abroad that he will travel when the time is right. Now he is busy working on internal affairs. Further, by sending representatives it helps the country to serve more because it is more expensive for the president to travel as compared to representatives,” explained the CCM Spokesperson.

Commenting on the issue of democracy in the country, Mr Sendeka said that the country’s democracy is in top gear, noting that there is no democracy without boundaries.

“Allowing political rallies throughout the five years while elections are over is to allow poverty to flourish in the country as citizena would be less involved in production,” said Mr Sendeka.