Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT John Magufuli has assigned the Minister responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government, Selemani Jafo, to sack leaders who have extravagantly spend public money in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The Head of State cited one of the recent cases in Geita Region where he said the District Executive Director Modest Apolinary wastefully spent 400m/- to purchase a luxurious vehicle.
President delivered the order after swearing-in ministers and their deputies in Dodoma on Wednesday.
Mr Jafo was among appointees who retained the position he served in the first phase of the current administration.
Dr Magufuli expressed his disappointment towards bad embezzlement of public funds in the regional and local authorities.
“I have retained you in this post not because you had done wonders in this portfolio considering that there is a problem when it comes to controlling spending…this is bad,” he stated.
He explained that the government was struggling to raise the budget for ‘Other Charges’ (OC) but some leaders misused the funds instead of using them to address problems in their areas such as buying medicines and other important things. “I want you to start with this Geita District Executive Director… suspend him immediately, send your people to go there and investigate bad spending,” Dr Magufuli ordered.
President Magufuli said he was surprised to learn over the cost of the vehicle that even the Regional Commissioner did not have.
He said the government has classified types of cars for each level of leadership, and thus the Geita District Executive Director purchased a car type not under his class.
The news of the purchase of the expensive Toyota Land Cruiser-V8 started going viral on social media recently, with Geita Rural MP Joseph Kasheku Musukuma publicly protesting the move.
