President Samia Suluhu Hassan pictured with Vice President Philip Mpango and Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi after the launch of the Development Campaign for National Welfare and the Fight Against Covid-19 in Dodoma yesterday. At right is the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Job Ndugai. PHOTO | STATE HOUSEBy Louis Kalumbia
Summary
Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday outlined how the $576 million Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be utilised - what with President Samia Suluhu Hassan warning that she will not tolerate misappropriation of the funds.
Speaking in Dodoma yesterday on expenditure of the funds - which roughly amount to Sh1.3 trillion - Finance and Planning Minister Mwigulu Nchemba said the money would be used to implement development projects in the education, water, health and tourism sectors.
Speaking during the launch of the Development Campaign for National Welfare and the Fight Against Covid-19, Dr Nchemba said the funds would also be used to execute projects that benefit the youth, women and children.
Another $100 million - roughly equivalent to Sh230 billion - would go to Zanzibar. Yet more of the funds would be used to construct 15,000 classrooms in secondary schools and 3,000 in primary schools on Mainland Tanzania.
“About 32 regional Vocational and Education Training Centres (Veta) will be constructed, 462,795 school desks procured and 10,812 books in braille will be published for the blind,” he said.
Dr Nchemba also said that Sh46.2 billion and Sh55.5 billion would be used to implement water projects in urban and rural areas respectively - as well as purchase 25 vehicles with water wells drilling equipment.
“Five pieces of equipment for the construction of dams and probing availability of water in drought areas would be purchased and distributed,” he said.
Also, he said, Sh466.9 billion has been allocated for 72 Intensive Care Units (ICU) in the Health sector - Sh54 billion of which would be used to procure and install modern ICU equipment.
Modern Emergency Departments (MEDs) would be built at the national, referral, zonal, regional and strategic districts levels, bringing their numbers to 105 from the present 10 MEDs.
“The government will procure 20 modern and 375 ordinary ambulances as well as 214 vaccination vehicles. Modern oxygen distribution systems would be built in 82 hospitals, to which 4,640 gas cylinders would be supplied,” he said.
Forty new oxygen manufacturing plants would be installed, while 2,700 hospital beds, bed sheets, lockers and tables would be bought, 60 sleep application machines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) would be purchased.
Dr Nchemba - who is the Iramba West MP - said 85 modern digital X-Ray machines and 29 CT-Scans would be bought as well as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines for zonal hospitals.
Some of the funds have also been set aside for the procurement of more vaccine doses... enough to inoculate 11 million Tanzanians, he said.
According to him, measures for proper utilization of the funds and realization of value for money have been considered.
But, yesterday, President Hassan warned that she will have zero-tolerance to misappropriation of the public funds.
“When you look at me, you say Her Excellency is white in colour; but I have my actual colours. Those who want to know my actual colours should steal the money or change expenditure plans without prior approval,” she warned.
“The country is going to boil over, with development projects in all corners. Therefore, ministers, district executive directors and respective teams should exercise proper supervision of the projects.”
According to her, since the projects could provide room for more soft loans, she will have zero tolerance against embezzlers who have such plans.
She said the projects would be implemented in the next nine months - and challenged the private sector to produce enough, high quality building materials including iron bars, corrugated iron sheets, cement...
The Head of State instructed Dr Nchemba to ensure that bureaucracy in granting tax exemptions or reductions for imported building materials in order to meet deadlines for implementing theprojects.
“Money from this programme should circulate in the country’s economy. To that end, domestic contractors should be given priority in implementing the government projects. Single-source accounts should be allowed instead of normal procurement processes,” instructed the President.
She also instructed the Controller and Auditor General (CAG); the Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) and parliamentary committees to closely monitor and supervise expenditure of the funds.
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