ZANZIBAR President Dr. Hussein Mwinyi  vowed to take stern disciplinary measures against thieves and embezzlers of public funds.

He condemned what he described as massive wastage of public money, challenging his subordinates—ministers and permanent secretaries— to keenly think on the problem and propose its lasting solution.

“Unless we stop this wastage of public money, we will get nowhere in terms of social and economic development,” President Mwinyi charged soon after the Acting Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Dr. Othman Abbas Ali presented his audit report for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

Dr. Mwinyi said despite the government’s ineffective revenue collection systems; there were massive leakages of the meagre collection.

“There is huge leakage in revenue collections due to our weak systems and the ill motives of our people,” he said.

President Mwinyi ordered all ministers and permanent secretaries to strongly control public expenditures in their portfolios and institute disciplinary measures against dishonest officers, insisting that accountability and good governance are inevitable.

“We should never have a repeat of these (audit) queries because that will indicate failure on our part...I will be happy to hear you (ministers) suspending or firing people over embezzlement,” directed President Mwinyi.

He further issued a strong warning against government officials bent on obstructing the CAG operations, describing the tendency as criminal and violation of the country’s constitution.

He ordered the chief overseer of the government spending to immediately resume the audits, which were reportedly thwarted by some top government officials: “Just tomorrow (today) go and complete your audit works ...and all responsible officers should be available to give you the necessary cooperation.”

Presenting the audit report summary, Dr. Abbas complained over a number of challenges in his works, charging that he was ordered not to further investigate an unexplained spending of over 1bn/-.

The CAG reported misappropriation in almost all public institutions—from the central government, local governments to autonomous institutions—with billions of taxpayers’ money not accounted for.

Many public institutions were implicated in dubious expenditures, which lacked evidence or whose procurement procedures were flouted.

The CAG reported abuses of the elders’ pension fund, with people as young as 45 years registered as beneficiaries against the fund’s rules which put 70 years as the minimum qualification age for the beneficiaries.

In compensation to people affected by the execution of development projects, the CAG has discovered gross frauds, with some people paid thrice through different bank accounts.

Dr. Abbas presented six audit books with 169 reports to the president, saying 102 audit certificates were issued.

The State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) and North A Town Council received adverse opinions on their financial accounts.

Source: Daily News (www.dailynews.co.tz)