AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has tasked three key government institutions to plug all corruption loopholes that were identified in order to increase government revenue collections in the country.
Speaking at a news conference in Dar es Salaam recently, the PCCB Director General, Brigadier General John Mbungo, named the institutions involved as the Regional Administration and Local Government, the National Examinations Council, and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).
“It is the belief of the PCCB that if the relevant institutions comply with and fully implement the recommendations made in our research, the level of government revenue collection will increase and will be more effective in providing services to the public,” he said.
Expounding further, the director general pointed out that during the period 2018 and 2019, the PCCB carried out five researches, including revenue collection in strategic areas of the City of Dar es Salaam. Such study, according to him, involved the Ubungo Bus Terminal and City Parking.
Brigadier General Mbungo further explained other studies as those related to the Council’s revenue collection for Point of Sale (POS), Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD), real estate tax collections as well as on preparations and management of National Examinations.
He said that in these areas the PCCB identified a number of corruption loopholes that would have prevented the government’s objectives from being achieved on revenue collection.
“One of the major issues we identified was the poor management of these revenue collection systems and the machines that were to be used in the collection were not sufficient to achieve the intended goal,” the director general pointed out.
According to him, there were also frauds in the collection of tax where some of the businessmen were able to temper with those machines for recording less amount than the standard required for the records.
Thus, he said, the provided advise included increasing facilities, complying with tax laws and providing adequate education to citizens and businesspeople so that they could see the importance of paying due taxes.
Regarding the examination council, the director general revealed that they received complaints of examination leakage as well as poor management at various levels.
He pointed out further that the PCCB realised that teachers were colluding with parents who contribute money and get in touch with them to get exams and pass them on to their children.
“Based on the findings, the Regional Administration and Local Government, the National Examinations Council, and the Tanzania Revenue Authority were advised to take steps to plug all loopholes of corruption identified,” he said.
The director general pointed out that one of the key role and essential steps in the fight against corruption is the prevention of bribe by identifying corruption gaps and proposing appropriate measures or ways to cover those loopholes in various systems.
In addition, Brigadier General Mbungo said, in carrying out the responsibility of preventing corruption, the PCCB carried out 573 functions of the government’s systematic analysis.
He also went on explaining that in order to bring about success in the implementation of the findings and the analysis, the PCCB organized a total of 368 stakeholder consultation workshops to discuss identified issues and put together strategies for how to bridge those gaps.
During the period 2018/2019, the director general said, a total of 1,106 development projects worth 1,668.2 billion were pursued, of which 98 percent of the projects related on focused water, construction, health and education sectors.
“In the follow-up, 113 projects worth of 99.3bn/-were identified as having various shortcomings including fraudulent and violation of procurement procedure, in which steps to initiate investigations were taken and taking those accused to the fraud in court,” the PCCB boss said.
Over the period, he said, the PCCB provided education to the community with the aim of encouraging them to engage in the fight against corruption through a variety of educational activities including, 2,513 seminars, public meetings and 3,273 open discussions and participation in 335 exhibitions.
According to him, there has also been writing of 569 articles, preparations and broadcasting of 377 radio and television programs.
In addition, a film known as BAHASHA delivering anti-corruption messages was shown on some of Uhuru Torch races.
