Dar es Salaam. Six donor countries are demanding that the government gives back more than Sh600 million stolen by state officials under the Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP). The Citizen on Sunday has established that Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan and Germany have jointly written to the ministry of finance asking for the refund.
In total, these countries donated 16 million euros (nearly Sh35bn) from 2009 to 2012 to fund the roll-out of the second phase of the five-year programme, which has a budget of Sh66.6bn.
There was no immediate reaction from the government. Finance Minister William Mgimwa said he was out of the country and unable to comment.
Efforts to reach his permanent secretary and senior staff at the Prime Minister’s office were futile.
But the Finnish ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish embassy in Dar es Salaam both confirmed the development.
In a statement, Finland’s head of the Unit for Eastern and Western Africa, Ms Helena Airaksinen, said her country was demanding 80,000 euros (Sh175 million) after a special audit commissioned by the donors.
According to a statement posted on the ministry’s website, this was the country’s contribution to the local authorities transformation programme.
“Payments to the support programme have been suspended,” Ms Airaksinen said, “and the whole programme will be terminated once the last investigations are completed in 2014.”
The expenses deemed unacceptable include cars purchased at exorbitant prices and excessive and unjustified per diem allowances and fees.
Ms Airaksinen added: “We don’t approve of the misuse of funds, therefore the issue is investigated thoroughly.
However, the people who suffer the most are ordinary Tanzanians who need the basic services provided by municipalities.”
She described the case as “very regrettable” but went on to say that it proves that monitoring works.
Tanzanian authorities, she added, really want to cooperate in resolving the problem and correcting their shortcomings in financial management.
According to the Finnish official, donors will commission one more special audit that concentrates on operations in 2012–2013 and will audit the large purchases made.
In Dar es Salam, Swedish Deputy Head of Mission Maria van Berlekom said the use of donor funds for the LGRP II was frozen early this year.
While she did not reveal how much her country was demanding, she said Swedish support covered the period up to June 2013.
Ms Berlekom, who heads the Development Cooperation Division at the embassy, said the donor countries would file individual letters of demand after a response from the government.
“Corruption hits the poor the hardest and contributes to worsening of poverty in several ways,” she said. “Our overall rule in the fight against corruption is to always prevent, never accept, always inform, and always act.”
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
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