Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has instructed local government councils to ensure the budgets being disbursed by the central government are properly spent for authorised purposes.
She said the government will continue instituting strong measures against all officials who will disregard the directive.
Ms Samia issued the directives yesterday as she kicked off her working tour in Tabora region, in which she inaugurated a 85.4 kilometers Nyahua- Chaya road, constructed under collaboration between the government of Tanzania and Kuwait Development Fund.
President Samia insisted that the government is spending a lot of money on financing development projects in all local government authorities, for the sake of improving service delivery to the people.
“As we are dishing out a lot of money for development projects in local government councils, then I expect to see the budget is spent on the intended purpose, not otherwise,” she said. “I will not hesitate to continue taking strong measures against those who will tamper with the money, there are few who want to see my true colours, they have seen it already,” she added.
The Head of State said the government has so far completed a number of infrastructural projects aimed at easing movement of people, goods and services in different parts of the country.
She insisted that the government is fully determined to ensure all the projects are completed on time, before coming up with another one.
“So far, we have completed construction of different road projects including Mbinga-Mbamba Bay (66km), Mtwara-Mnivata (50km), Mafinga-Igawa (138.7km), Tabora-Mpanda (354km) and MpembaIsongole (50.3km),” she said.
Other projects include the Arusha Outer Ring Road projects (42km), expansion of the new Bagamoyo road section of Morocco-Mwenge as well as the Tanzanite Bridge in Dar es Salaam.
As part of the efforts to open up the country, the government is also implementing a number of projects including constriction of the 112.3 km of Outer Ring Road in Dodoma.
Other ongoing road projects include the Pangani-Tanga (50km), Bagamoyo- Pangani -Tanga (120.8km), Wami Bridge which is at 45 percent of completion, Msititu- Maweni (50km) and the 53.3kms of road from Maronga to Makete in Njombe region.
The list also has Kimara-Kibaha Road (19.2km) second and third phase of the 43.3km Dar es Salaam Rapid Bus Transit, Ruangwa-Nanganga (53.2km) and the construction of the Magufuli Kigongo-Busisi bridge.
“The government is also constructing a 260.6km road from Kabingo-Kasulu-Manyovu, Kazilangwa-Chavu (36km), Malagarasi – Uvinza (51km) and 66.9km of Kidatu Ifakara in Morogoro region,” said the President.
Speaking of the just launched project, President Samia said the Nyahua-Chaya Road will play a crucial role in stimulating economic activities among people of Tabora and the neighboring regions.
“Construction of this road was crucial since it provides connectivity to the people of all parts of the country, be it northern, southern, Lake Zone and western part of the country,” she said.
The road also shortens a route to and from neighboring countries of Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo via Kigoma and Katavi regions.
In another development, President Samia instructed the Minister of State President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government Innocent Bashungwa to ensure speedy tendering processes for all projects being financed by part of the 1.3tri/- loan Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) under International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The president was concerned with delays in the tendering process for some of the projects including water and health projects. “Deadline for spending the IMF loan is in June this year, just in the coming month, the PoLARG minister should act accordingly on this,” she said.
Speaking earlier, the Minister for Works and Transport Prof Makame Mbarawa said the government will continue allocating a budget for constructing different infrastructures for the sake to ease movement of people, goods and services.
He also asked Tanzanians to make better use of the projects in improving their incomes through different opportunities on trade and business.
“But we have to protect the infrastructure for long term benefits of our country and individual incomes since the projects bring different economic opportunities,” he explained.
For his part, the Kuwait fund Deputy Director General – Operations Waleed Al-Bahar commended the good cooperation with the government through the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
He assured the commitment to continue working together with Tanzania on bringing social and economic development in the country.
“We are impressed to see completion of this project and the fund is impressed by the implementation of these projects,” he said.
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