Govt: No proof of corruption yet in connection to ‘missing’ Sh1.5 trillion mentioned in CAG Report
Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji in parliament on Friday. Photo| Edwin Mjwahuzi
What you need to know:
In the report, the CAG, Prof Mussa Assad revealed, among others that Tanzania lost billions of shillings through various dealings involving how some officials at the now disbanded Railway Assets Holding Company (Rahco) exercised themselves in their dealings.
Dodoma. The government has said that it will only say whether or not there was any form of corrupt deal in the Sh1.5 trillion that was reported to be missing by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) after conducting a thorough analysis of the transactions.
“We are working on it….As required by law, the issue will be discussed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the parliament will be informed,” the Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji told the Parliament on Friday, June 8, 2018.
She was responding to a question from Ms Naghenjwa Kaboyoka who wanted the government to tell the Parliament whether there were corrupt deals in some of the money – reported as missing or spent wrongly – by the CAG in his audit report for the financial year 2016/18.
In the report, the CAG, Prof Mussa Assad revealed, among others that Tanzania lost billions of shillings through various dealings involving how some officials at the now disbanded Railway Assets Holding Company (Rahco) exercised themselves in their dealings.
The audit, said Prof Assad, has shown that Rahco – which has since been merged with Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) to form Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) – spent a total of Sh20 billion on a feasibility study in 2016/17 on a project that never took off.
“If you conduct a feasibility study and you don’t implement the project, then public fund is lost in the process,” he observed.
Similarly, said Prof Assad, Rahco may have lost a cool Sh194 billion through unremitted revenues from TRA.
A calculation of the money, spent either erroneously or without valid documents to back the expenditures, rose up to Sh1.5 trillion.
Ms Kaboyoka, who doubles as PAC chairperson, said in Parliament on Friday, June 8, 2018, that money has been spent erroneously in various departments and agencies, calling upon the formation of a Parliamentary Committee to probe how the money was spent.
