CAG ready to audit national debt after calls from MPs

Dar es Salaam. Controller and Auditor General (CAG) Charles Kichere says he is ready to audit the national debt over the past five years.

The CAG made the remark after Mtama MP Nape Nnauye had requested transparency in auditing the five-year national debt, prompting mixed views among people, with some given reasons for the soaring of the debt.

The lawmaker wanted members of the public to be told where the loaned money was taken, its actual value and the number of projects that had been implemented as the national debt had now soared to Sh78 trillion from Sh51 trillion in the past six years.

ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe supported Mr Nnauye’s suggestion, saying that it was important that the Finance Ministry made a special audit of the national debt so to know the actual amount of loans and where those loans were specifically directed so that there could be good plans of managing the national debt.

“If you look back, it has been my long-standing demand that the national debt account be subjected to a special audit.

“It is important to satisfy ourselves as to where these funds were directed because members of the public were being told that internal funds were being spent on development projects,” said Mr Kabwe.

Mr Kabwe, a former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said Mr Nnauye had done a good thing that deserved to be supported and action taken.

For his part, retired CAG Ludovick Utouh said he personally had the thinking that the national debt was sustainable on the criteria of both the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, Mr Utouh explained that MPs, as the government supervisors, had the right to ask for an audit.

“The debt is still sustainable, but MPs, as the government supervisors and people’s representativess, can ask for a special audit to be made as part of their job, and this will not be the first time. Parliament, through its procedure, can ask the CAG to implement that,” said Mr Utouh.

Mr Utouh, who served as CAG from 2006 to 2014, said there was no special loan rate within a certain period, but explained that what was mainly observed was the sustainability of the debt.

He said the soaring of the debt at a higher rate was due to many strategic projects that were implemented during the relevant period. He explained that such projects needed huge amounts of funds to be implemented.

“In the past five years there were strategic projects being implemented including the construction of Standard Gauge Railway, Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station, revival of Air Tanzania Corporation and construction of other projects and various bridges in the country. All this needed a lot of money. So, the soaring of the debt is not a surprising thing,” said Mr Utouh.

For his part, Mr Kichere said, “Our duty is audit, my job is audit. So, if they tell us to conduct an audit, we have no problem as we will do it.”

A University of Dodoma lecturer, Dr Paul Loisulie, said Nnauye’s argument was supposed to be taken into consideration, adding that the issue of the national debt had been debated for a long time by many people, particularly the extent by which it soared in recent years.