THE Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Prof Mussa Assad, has discovered that Kigoma Regional Secretariat is home to chronic ‘defaulters’ of loans from the Higher Education Student’s Loans Board (HESLB).
In his Central Government Annual General
Report for 2015/16 financial year, the CAG indicates the number of loan
defaulters from Kigoma authorities now stands at 390, followed by
Tabora Regional Secretariat with 113 members of staff.
The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human
Settlements Developments comes a distant third with 62 defaulters on
its staff, followed by Kilimanjaro Regional Secretariat with 46,
according to the CAG report presented before the National Assembly in
Dodoma last week.
Other government institutions with the
number of staff in brackets who have not paid their respective loans to
the HESLB are Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (22),
Attorney General’s chambers (14) and Ministry of Constitution and Legal
Affairs (7).
The list contains staff from the
President’s Office Public Service Management and Good Governance as
well, where five staff members are listed among loan defaulters.
Altogether, eight government entities harbour some 659 loan defaulters
between them.
Prof Assad pointed out that Section 20
of the Higher Education Student’s Loans Board Act, as amended in 2007,
requires the employer of any loan beneficiary to notify the board of the
employment of the loan beneficiary.
The employer, he said, is to ensure that
employees arrange with employer for the monthly deductions and
remittance of the repayment installments to the Board. As part of his
review on human resource management, he noted that Accounting Officers
in eight entities did not comply with the requirement of the Act.
He said that such officers failed to
notify the loan board of 659 loan beneficiaries within their
jurisdiction as well as arranging for monthly deductions and remitting
the same to the loan Board.
“As a result, a total amount of
913,391,857/82 as loan issued to (some of) staff was not deducted from
salaries of the beneficiaries. Failure to notify and arrange for
payments may put the loan board into financial distress and apparently
failing to serve prospective loan beneficiaries,” he said.
He said that compared with his previous
report there was an increase from six to eight entities noted to have
violated the Higher Student Loan Board Act.
“I reiterate my recommendation that
employers should comply with the Loan board Act by notifying the HESLB
of the employment of loan beneficiaries and pay every deduction from the
loan beneficiary’s wages or remuneration to the Board within fifteen
days after the end of each month,” he appealed.
In addition, he suggested, the loan
beneficiary’s (employees) should arrange with the employer for monthly
deductions from his or her salary and ensure payments of such monthly
deductions by the employer are remitted to the Loan Board.
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