AfricaPress-Tanzania: ZANZIBAR President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi yesterday tasked the Ministry of Works, Communications and Transport to strengthen transparency and accountability so that they effectively contribute to Isles’ socio-economic development.
Dr Mwinyi made the directives yesterday when he met the ministry’s leadership at State House.
He said that the ministry has to take deliberate measures to ensure that all its institutions deliver to compliment the government’s efforts to boost the Isles’ economy.
“Most of the institutions in the ministry are yet to achieve the required target towards stimulating and contributing to the economic growth, so, as leaders you have to go and remove all unnecessary barriers the hinder the country’s economic growth,” Dr Mwinyi told the leadership.
According to him, the ministry has a big role to ensure that the country’s roads, airports, ports and communications infrastructure are well and improved and this cannot be achieved without having proper implementation plans in place.
Dr Mwinyi also wanted the ministry leadership to supervise the renovation of Ole-Kengeja road in Pemba which is reported to have been badly destroyed.
He also expressed his dissatisfaction on the revenue collections trend at the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport directing the ministry to install friendly infrastructure to support smooth and clear collections of taxes.
“Same applies to the port of Zanzibar where a lot of government revenues are lost. I want the ministry to supervise this and ensure that all public revenues are collected electronically,” he said.
Dr Mwinyi further emphasised the ministry’s staff and officials to be efficient, observe ethics when executing their duties so as to bring out required outcomes.
Minister Rahma Kassim Ali assured the minister that they are going to work hard, supervise the implementation of all the directives for the country’s socio- economic development.
“We will continue supervising the development projects, fight recklessness and embezzlement of public funds, supervise collection of revenues so as to stimulate economic growth,” she said.
Isles’ Chief Secretary Eng Zena Ahmed Said stressed that more attention is needed when implementing various projects under the ministry so as to ensure that they are all implemented on time.
Earlier, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Amour Hamil Bakari said that they have already written to the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) so as to inspect the quality of various projects including the Ole-Kengeja road in Pemba.
“We also formed a special technical team which comprises engineers and ICT experts so as to supervise the construction of the passengers building (Terminal 3) at the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, the port is currently also working 24 hours serving 10-11 containers per hour compared to the previous 5-7 containers,” he said.
