Dar es Salaam City Council executive director's appointment revoked
What you need to know:
- He said the CAG report revealed that revenue experts at the council were directly interfering with the Local Government Revenue Collection Information Systems (LGRCIS) and banks and recorded payments that were not sent to the financial institutions.
Dar es Salaam. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has suspended Jumanne Shauri from his position as Dar es Salaam City Director along with nine others for embezzlement of more than Sh10 billion which was collected and not submitted to the bank as required by the law.
Apart from Mr Shauri, others include Tulusubya Kamalamo (Treasurer), James Bangu (Revenue Accountant), Abdallah Mlwale (Chief Financial Officer) and Mohammed Khais (Marketing Accountant).
The list also includes Jesca Lugonzigwa and Josephine Sandewa (Accounting Officers), Tatu Mkangwa (Labour) and Felician Maro (Assistant Accountant) who are accused of causing the council Sh1.214 billion loss.
Apart from suspending them from their jobs the Prime Minister directed the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) Commander in Dar es Salaam to investigate the allegations.
Majaliwa, who was on a work visit in Dar es Salaam, made the announcement on Monday July 11, 2022 while addressing regional commissioners, members of parliament, councilors and other Ilala council staff at Karimjee Hall.
The premier's directive resulted from a special audit on Internal Revenue in Dar es Salaam City Council for the financial year 2019/2020 to 2020/2021 conducted by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG).
He said the CAG report revealed that revenue experts at the council were directly interfering with the Local Government Revenue Collection Information Systems (LGRCIS) and banks and recorded payments that were not sent to the financial institutions.
“They did that with the aim of hiding the truth on funds, contrary to Public Funds Act. Also, accountants recorded in the system amounts that were not sent to the bank for the purpose of distorting the actual collection information,” said Majaliwa.
According to him, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has emphasised the need to focus on revenue collection and expenditure to enable the government to continue to implement more projects.
"There is a tendency to create fraud in the collection and use of council revenue, there are times when they decide to shut down the system for two to three hours saying they are facing internet issues while the revenue collected during that particular period is not recorded,” he said.
Majaliwa has directed the city council to monitor all sources of revenue for the council and also to set estimates that will enable them to collect more.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Innocent Bashungwa and the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Riziki Shemdoe, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Amos Makala and other government officials.
