AfricaPress-Tanzania: KALAMBO District Commissioner (DC) Clarious Misungwi has directed all 93 village and ward executive officers to refund 297.5m/-, being domestic revenue they allegedly misappropriated in the past five years.
The 93 village and ward executive officers are among civil servants employed by the council and tasked to collect revenue.
They are accused of misappropriating 297.5 m/- since 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 to January this year.
The DC told the ‘Sunday News’ during an exclusive interview, warning that the suspects would face legal action.
“All 93 civil servants, who swindled 297,482,051/-, being domestic revenue they had collected must refund it at the end of this month… After that law enforcers will mount manhunt for defiant and subsequently they will face legal action,” warned the DC.
According to local government guidelines, the 93 suspected swindlers have not banked the collected revenue contrary to law, which provides that all domestic revenue collected must be banked the same day or the following day.
Kalambo District CCM Chairperson Able Mwanga warned that such malpractices committed by civil servants had become like cancer which had no treatment so far in the district.
“The culprits are a big headache to the council as instead of banking what they had collected they have turned into greedy collectors.”
But how comes it takes so many years for DED not to assign them tasks because the council most likely has had incurred losses as some of suspects are reportedly dead, some are fugitives as they are still on the run for fear of being prosecuted…Some of them have been sacked from their duties, but they have not refunded the money they had swindled,” noted Mr Mwanga.
Meanwhile, Mr Misungwi has announced that fishing activities in Lake Sundu have been suspended for four months until May 1, this year.
He emphasised that the move was to pave the way for small fish species to mature and control breeding areas in the lake. “The DC has instructed me to write an official letter, informing members of the public that fishing activities have been suspended effective from January 25 to May 1, this year,” said Mr Mwanga.
The DC appealed to councillors from Mkaku, Sundu and Kilesha wards, whose villages were near the lake to have public rallies to alert members of the public over the four-month suspension of fishing activities in the lake.