Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Ministry of State, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) yesterday tabled a 7.68tri/- budget for the 2021/22 financial year, largely geared towards massive improvement of social services.
Out of the sum, 2.95tri/- is requested for development programmes, among others, repairing and constructing schools and hospitals.
The proposed development budget has increased by 29.3 per cent compared to the current fiscal year, whereby 2.28tri/- was allocated.
Presenting the proposed budget in the National Assembly here yesterday, the Minister of State, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government Ummy Mwalimu, highlighted six priorities to be implemented in the next financial year in line with the National Development Plan.
Among the priorities is the improvement of basic health services provision whereby the government plans to spend 60.5bn/- to construct 121 new health centres and to complete the construction of 52 health centres in local government authorities at the cost of 129bn/-.
Ms Ummy further said the next financial year would also see the completion of hospitals in 68 councils with 55.7bn/- allocated for the project.
The 68-hospital project started during the 2018/19 financial year, including the Uhuru Hospital located in Chamwino District, Dodoma.
The government also plans to build 28 new hospitals in councils that do not have hospitals, with 14bn/- allocated for the project.
Provision of better education from pre-primary schools to secondary schools is another priority during the next fiscal year, whereas the minister said the first phase will involve the construction of ten out of 26 girls boarding secondary schools for science subjects.
One school will be constructed in each region and once completed; the schools will have Form V and VI classes. Minister Ummy further detailed that her docket plans to spend between 650m/- and 700m/- to construct new 300 secondary schools for the wards that still do not have such schools.
In line with this, it will complete the building of 1,840 classrooms for secondary schools at a cost of 23bn/- and construct 300 houses for teachers at a cost of 50m/- each.
The PO-RALG is also mandated to implement free education policy, whereby it is looking forward to spending 312bn/- and allocate the other 50bn/- for buying textbooks for primary and secondary schools.
In efforts to address the current shortage of 1,048,561desks in primary schools, the government will ensure that during the coming year, a total of 710,000 desks are supplied to the schools.
Other priorities would be the construction and repair of rural and urban roads, empowering citizens economically, strengthening good leadership and supervision of resources and building a better environment for doing business and investment in industry in rural and urban areas.
Elaborating, Ms Mwalimu said in the 2021/22 fiscal year, the PO-RALG, through the Tanzania Rural Urban Road Agency (TARURA) plans to construct 24,630-kilometre roads in urban and rural areas.
The minister said the PO-RALG and its institutions, including 26 regions and 184 councils it plans to collect 916.4bn/- revenues from its sources such as selling used items, school fees and levies.
Ms Mwalimu also told the House about programmes implemented during the current financial year in which it allocated a 7.01tri/- total budget.
By last February, the docket received 3.9tri/- from the treasury, which is equivalent to 55.6 per cent of the total endorsed budget.
