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Kiswahili kicks out English from local government level for easy management
2005-09-17 07:09:49
By A correspondent
Research of Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) suggests that a review of the national legislation to enhance transparency and access to information at the local government level would be a major factor to cause change in financial management at the local government level.
Also proposed is the use of Kiswahili language in publishing financial statements and audited accounts.
Another is the introduction of communication officers at district levels who would digest technical financial issues before passing on to wananchi.
Putting in place a national policy on transparency, equipping local leaders with financial training as well as computerization of financial reporting at least to the level of the district level, are also proposed.
The recommendations would be contained in a survey on Financial Management in Local Government, commissioned by Research on Poverty Alleviation to two academicians of the University of Dar es Salaam, namely Dr Richard Mushi and Lemayon Melyoki.
The study is part of the implementation of the Governance Notice Board Project, which is a collaborative initiative with a United States based organisation, PADCO. The project is funded by USAID.
Stakeholders from various government ministries, local government authorities, and development partners and the diplomatic community, discussed the report of the survey in Dar es Salaam over the weekend ahead of its final release and added their inputs.
The survey was conducted in two districts of Dodoma Rural in Dodoma Region and Simanjiro in Arusha Region to examine modalities for financial management at local level, mapping policy and regulatory frameworks.
The report’s findings on the legal framework, says local government leaders use some sections of the national legislation erroneously to hide important financial information to rightful stakeholders.
’In some cases it is too prohibitive, whereas in other area it is silent on very key issues, which, if clearly defined could enhance financial transparency at local government levels and empower the people to hold their leaders accountable economically, socially and politically,’ states the report.
The sections of the national legislation mentioned to have negative implications on financial transparency at local government level are the Local Authority Finance Act, No 9, of 1982; Financial Memorandum of 1967; MTP Planning Guidelines; Procurement Act and Regulations; National Security Act, No 3 of 1970; and The Newspaper Act of 1976.
According to the report, others are the Civil Service Regulations, Circulars and Standing Orders; The Broadcasting Services Act of No 6 of 1993 and various sections of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Apart from proposing a national policy on transparency, the report suggests the policy would be a guide to local government on issues of transparency, by preparing their own internal policies to be endorsed by relevant political machinery.
Most discussants, particularly representatives of local government authorities congratulated REPOA for commissioning such a report, saying it was an appropriate ’stitch in time’ as it painted a ’true picture’ of the situation on the ground.
Patrick Ngowi of the National Coordinator of Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF), said the reason why most financial information was scanty at local levels was because of the lack of communication officials at district levels.
’Effective communication is a key component to transparency and good government; I welcome this idea of having capacities at district level to digest information for wananchi,’ Ngowi noted.
One representative of a Local Authority, said skills were very lacking in local government, to the extent that the recent government directive of employing form four leavers as Village Executive Officers has hit snags in his district because they are not available.
’If you cannot find a form four leaver for VEO, how can a standard seven leaver be able to properly organize his financial matters in a manner that they can report to their fellow villagers,’ he quipped declining to have his name mentioned.
He said lack of proper policy and co-ordination at ministerial levels was confusing to officials working in local government, citing the abolition of the development levy while the government was not prepared to disburse subsidies to local government in time.
”Sometimes we receive subsidies nine months late. How on earth could these dreams of financial transparency be achieved as expected?” he queried.
The Programme Officer of the Tanzania Education Network, Octavious Kisinda, said the reason why financial transparency was lacking was because leaders at district levels tend to take financial matters as secrets for themselves and councillors alone, hence people around them cannot hold them accountable.
Earlier, when opening the workshop, the Outcome Manager of the Governance Component in the Local Government Reform Programme, Ministry of Regional Administration in President’s Office, Ben Kasege said successful implementation of the reforms was a vital means of achieving the national strategy for growth and poverty reduction, or MKUKUTA in Kiswahili.
He said decentralization of government powers by devolution aimed at increasing accountability to the citizenry, while opening gates wider for all actors to take part in political, administrative and economic processes, cannot happen in the absence of clear mechanisms of transparency and accountability.
”If necessary space is to be provided for a wider group of stakeholders to take part in running and monitoring local government affairs, we need to be clear about the rights and obligations of everybody involved,” he emphasized.
He said local government finances should always be seen as the property of the people, hence the people should have the right to be informed on how their money was being used, which he said was not the case today.
Kasege elaborated that accountability has more to it than finances and accounting only, adding that public leaders and officials should also be held accountable for their actions and decisions that do not involve finances.
He said in order to enhance transparency at local level, the government has issued a directive to local government leaders to conduct public hearings in order to gather peoples’ views and reactions before any major programme or policy decision is executed.
On the political dimension of accountability, Kasege challenged workshop participants to propose a mechanism, which would enable constituencies to hold their political leaders accountable on a continuous basis as opposed to what is the case today where they wait until an election term was over.
’At election time like now, political leaders paint rosy pictures of their performance during the preceding period, as a basis for the citizenry to determine whether their terms should be extended or not, but it should be noted that an election takes place once in every five years!’
The workshop proceedings are to be incorporated in REPOA research findings aimed at strengthening the existing mechanisms for transparency and accountability.
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