Arusha. Vice President, Phillip Mpango, yesterday expressed anger over blatant misuse and theft of public funds by officials serving in the local councils.
He asked public servants behind
corruption-related scams to bow out because they have lost integrity to serve
in a public office.
"Instead of waiting for
investigations or findings of the probe teams, they should step out. They are
no longer needed in public service," he said.
He challenged heads of the local
authorities - city, municipal, town and district councils - to act swiftly
against officials behind abuse of office and theft.
He said local authorities' chiefs
should not wait for orders from above to contain squander of the public
financial resources.
Dr Mpango gave the warming at the
Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) where he graced the opening of
the 37th Congress of the Association of the Local Authorities of Tanzania
(ALAT).
He said public servants squandering
or stealing funds meant for development projects have breached their work
ethics and financial discipline they were supposed to observe and should exit.
The VP stressed high level
discipline in development funds expenditure, noting that the tax payers expect
to see value of their money in project implementation.
He reminded the local councils to
sustain fund remittance to the village governments to ensure they operated
effectively and enable them to oversee projects at the grassroots levels.
Dr Mpango also called on the civic
leaders, particularly the councillors, to support the government's drive
against embezzlement of funds meant for the development projects.
The councillors should assist
the government to plug the loopholes through which the state loses revenues
either through wastage or poor collection, he said.
The VP cited cases where funds
allocation of implementation of projects were channeled to the bank accounts of
some corrupt local leaders or the council officials.
"The government has no business
with such officials. They are notorious for squandering of public resources.
There is no need for them to continue serving in the public office," he
pointed out.
Dr Mpango, whose office holds the
environment docket, directed that each local council should have a focal person
responsible for environment conservation and who will be accountable for
projects falling within the sector.
Speaking at the meeting, the
minister of State for Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG),
Angela Kairuki, said the government expects improved service delivery from the
councils.
She implored the local councils to
ensure full involvement of wananchi in project design and implementation so
that nobody is left behind.
ALAT deputy chairman, Murshid Ngeze,
promised that the association will be accountable on supervision of funds
allocated for executive of various development projects.
He said improved collection of
revenues has seen some councils removed from the list of dozens which had audit
queries from the Controller and Auditor General (CAG).
He added that ALAT would emphasise
on effective and efficient collection of the much needed revenues by its nearly
200 members.
He, however, appealed to the central
government to employ accountants currently working with the local authorities
because the latter can hardly afford paying them salaries.
The central government should do the
same for the procurement staff who continue to drain the meagre resources of
the local governments through salary payments, he said.
The three day conference is
sponsored by NMB Bank Plc which announced yesterday that it has remitted Sh 1.3
trillion in taxes to the national coffers in the past eight years.
The revenue raised by the lender
could have financed the combined budgets of several ministries in the Union
government.
Last year alone, Tanzania's leading
financial services business paid taxes amounting to Sh467 billion.
Yesterday, the bank showcased the
contribution to the national development efforts during the annual congress of
LGA's (local government authorities).
Opening the congress the VP lauded
the top lender for improving the livelihoods of Tanzanians through its
financial support for productive activities.
"We should emulate NMB in its
campaign to plant a million trees", he said, noting that NMB had partnered
with RALG in tree planting in various parts of the country.
The lender has also nurtured a
competition with a price package oF Sh.472 million for the winners and all
participants..
Dr Mpango called on the LGAs to
maintain fiscal discipline when spending funds from the central government,
strive to improve their revenue collections and tame leakages of public funds
for better and comfortable undertaking of development projects.
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