Bunge-Lenye-Meno-A-Parliament-with-Teeth-for-Tanzania-LAXNNAJ547

The Public Accounts Committee
Keeping the books
In 2007, for the first time in the recent history of Tanzania, the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) received the annual report of the Controller
and Auditor General (CAG) by March 31st, that is, within nine months
from the end of the government financial year. We have a law stating that
the CAG’s report should be tabled in parliament no later than nine months
after the end of the government financial year – and that is what happened.
The report is then discussed by my committee, the PAC, which presents
its own report to be discussed by parliament. In the six years prior to
2006, the deadline had not been met and our report had not been
discussed. In 2006, we managed to have our report discussed in
parliament, and then in 2007 the CAG’s report arrived on time. It raised
quite a few issues, including the potential of the mining sector to fund
government revenues.
The PAC is becoming more effective because the quality and detail of
our information is getting better: the CAG report in 2007 was an A4
document of 450 pages. A number of structural problems within the
National Audit Office has been addressed since the appointment of a
new CAG in 2006. The new Public Audit Act, which came into force in
July 2008, gives more independence to the CAG, in terms of
management and funding.
The role of the president
The first report of the new CAG became a high profile document from
the moment it was tabled in parliament in 2007. There was a cabinet
meeting specifically to discuss the CAG report. A special meeting was
called for all the accounting officers for central government, chaired by
the president. It became clear this process was taken very seriously by
the president.
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