Tuesday, January 23, 2018

JPM dismisses Butiama DED over ineptitude

By DAILY NEWS Reporter
PRESIDENT John Magufuli yesterday dismissed Butiama District Executive Director (DED) Solomon Ngiliue over failure to discharge his duties in his district.

The Minister of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG), Mr Selemani Jafo, said in a statement that Ngiliue’s sacking follows a recent working tour of the district by the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.
During the tour, the premier found out that some officials in various district councils were irresponsible. Mr Jafo directed the Permanent Secretary in his docket to equally take appropriate measures against an accountant who was involved in the misappropriation of the government funds in the district.
“I want all officials under RALG to observe professionalism and public service code of conduct through proper utilisation of public resources for the benefit of the nation and its people,’’ he charged.
During his tour, Mr Majaliwa directed acting Mara Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) Raphael Nyanda to use a team of special auditors to audit the Butiama DED office, saying he had smelt rot in public finance spending.
The PM also ordered that the sacked DED, the District Accountant Masanja Sabuni and Procurement Officer Robert Makendo be probed over misuse of public funds. He ordered investigations on the trio over alleged squandering of government’s money allocated for various development projects, including the 12m/- that was spent in writing the district council profile.
Other money that could not be accounted for, according to the premier, includes 70m/- allocated for special Continueseducation and 288m/- for the Butiama water project. For the investigation to be done expeditiously, Mr Majaliwa asked the Deputy Minister in the president’s office RALG, Josephat Kandege to stay in Butiama District to ensure that the special audit is conducted to see if the money allocated for development projects were utilised as planned.
“Over 200m/- were withdrawn from the development account but instead of spending it on development projects, the money was used to pay allowances for form four examination supervision.
“Worse enough, the money was used to pay councillors’ allowances who were in office in the 2014/2015 financial year when the fifth Phase government was yet to assume office,’’ fumed the PM, adding:
“The whopping 12m/- was spent in preparing the district profile, which required only people to sit down and write…I want thorough investigations conducted so that all people involved face the wrath of the law.’’
He further directed the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to arrest and investigate the Tanzania Building Agency (TBA) Regional Manager, Peter Salim, over failure to construct the district council’s office.
“Furnish me with a report once the audits are done,” Mr Majaliwa directed, revealing that the government disbursed 600m/- to TBA in April last year, but construction work was yet to commence.

No comments :

Post a Comment