29th September 2013
In our yesterday’s edition, we published a
front-page story headlined, “Ghost projects cost taxpayers over Sh 2
trillion” in which we revealed that some 35 companies had received
trillions of taxpayers money for the work that wasn’t done.
Quoting the Board Chairman of the
Procurement Regulatory Authority, Matern Lumbanga, our sister paper
reported that the revelations emerged from compliance and
value-for-money audits carried out during the financial year that ended
30 June 2013.
PPRA says such dubious payments involved
23 procurement entities, adding that these entities made payments for
exaggerated quantities of works or slapdash jobs.
According to Lumbanga, the authority
conducted two audits, namely, compliance and value for money audits
(VfM), involving 120 procuring entities. The audited entities included
32 ministries, independent departments and agencies (MDAs), 46 public
authorities and 42 local government authorities.
Some five years ago, President Kikwete
revealed that corruption was eating a third of the country’s budget to
local governments, and that a big chunk of the lost monies were in the
form of procurement and services.
Today, we are told that about Sh2.1
trillions was paid out for services that weren’t delivered at all. This
money could have built dozens of dispensaries, modern laboratories in
our schools or hundreds kilometres of public roads.
But all these trillions ended up in the
pockets of corrupt and greedy contractors or suppliers who collude with
government and public officials to fleece this country.
The question we ask today is, how long
shall they steal from Tanzanians? We ask this question because every
year when the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) releases his audit
report, it is full of bad news of how taxpayers’ billions get stolen,
and we aren’t told of any concrete measures being taken to curb these
massive thefts.
The time has come for the Prevention and
Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and Director of Public
Prosecutions, and other law enforcers to deal with suspects who are
accused of stealing trillions from the government coffers.
Not just that; ; this country is being run
dry by suppliers who are paid trillions for the works they don’t do;
they should be prosecuted, and we have the laws to do so.
This country isn’t poor; it has been
bankrupted by corrupt public officials and their allies. If these
dishonest public officials and their allies aren’t stopped, we should
prepare Tanzanians for the worst.
SOURCE:
GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
