Cooperation with CSOs is key, says DC

What you need to know:

He said this earlier this week during the launch of a new project to empower city residents, make follow-ups on and supervise public resources.

Mbeya. The district commissioner in Mbeya Region, Mr Paul Ntinika, has said his office will continue cooperating with civil society organisations (CSOs) in various community activities.

He said this earlier this week during the launch of a new project to empower city residents, make follow-ups on and supervise public resources.

The project is being implemented by an organisation called Child Support Tanzania (CST) under the financing of the Foundation for Civil Society.

Mr Ntinika called upon the residents and local government leaders, including councillors, to cooperate and understand things being done in their own interests and the nation in general.

“The government provides funds for various projects for citizens, but supervision has been always a big problem. However, this project is being implemented by a non-governmental organisation, which will cooperate with the residents to raise public awareness on funds provided by the government in their areas, how they are spent and give the people feedback,” he said.

He noted that since all organisations worked for society in cooperation with the government, they would continue cooperating with the government and residents for the good of the nation.

For her part, CST Executive Director Noela Msuya said many communities were not involved adequately in important issues such as supervision and making follow-ups on the public resources, something that created loopholes for misappropriation of public resources.

She suggested that it would be good to hold public meetings that would also involve residents, students, teachers, ward and local government leaders, councillors and other groups like political and religious leaders.

Development stakeholders and an expert in economic affairs, Dr Stephen Mwakajumilo, said many projects launched by the government were not implemented efficiently due to lack of supervision and follow-ups.

He explained that the central government provided resources believing that they would be spent as intended, but what happened was different.

Former president of the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) in the country, Mr Julius Kaijage, said the duty of private organisations was to work for society. He thus appealed to residents to cooperate with the government in the implementation of development projects.