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Controller and Auditor General deserve extended powers
2006-10-26 08:47:44
By Editor
The Minister for Finance Zakia Meghji has hinted that new rules and regulations will be re-written in order to give the Controller and Auditor General’s office more powers.
The way it stands right now, the Act creating that office seems to be one of the bad laws for the simple reason that it lacks cause and effect operational instruments that would deter errant public accountants and material managers.
Since its creation, this office has been working meticulously in its role to audit public accounts and its reports are not so much secretive.
They are normally made available to parliament and media for scrutiny and comment.
Year in year out, the audited accounts would depict billions of unaccounted for expenditure, ghost procurement running into billions and many other inconsistencies that smack of gross misconduct and theft of public finances.
Once the media and few MPs throw their criticisms at the malpractices, the story ends there. And, it has been a vicious cycle of sinful accountants engendering even more sins every financial year.
We had hardly seen any of these culprit arraigned, prosecuted and if found guilty, jailed. If the laws of the land are good enough, they would also empower the state to reclaim public property stolen by the unscrupulous officials.
It is not clear why the law has been silent for long about the need for ’cause and effect’ stipulation in the Controller and Auditor General Act.
The incumbent administration seems to be keen in sharpening the law to ensure that no stone was left unturned.
If CAG is given powers to prosecute alleged thieves of public money, that will be a great plus for encouraging transparency in public expenditure.
And, we, the spectators, will judge whether the dancers are doing fine or otherwise.
EU’s 40 p.c. tax on coffee is ridiculous
Reports coming from World Trade Organization (WTO) indicate that the European Union (EU) is planning to propose introduction of a 40 per cent tax on processed coffee entering its market.
The agenda will be tabled in the forthcoming World Trade Organization (WTO), likely to end in disaster similar to the last Geneva’s Doha Round of negotiation.
The EU is equally proposing tax waiver for unprocessed coffee.
Logic would attest that the EU wants East Africa to continue exporting unprocessed coffee.
Although, Tanzania, like other developing countries has limited financial and technical capacity to effectively negotiate, this time we must say no.
We are yet witnessing double standards of the highest degree which ultimately intends to reinforce the trading status of exporting raw goods to be processed in Europe and eventually come back to us, probably on the backyard of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
WTO is supposed to foster free trade among its 149 members, but it was increasingly becoming a forum where to settle trading scores as well as raising new hurdled to smooth conduct of international trade.
One of the surest ways capable of uplifting Africa from severe poverty was to engage in value adding food processing activities, like roasting and processing instant coffee.
It amounts to a stiff bore when anybody seems to be against that noble goal, and in particular, attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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