Mike Mande
5 October 2008
Tanzania's fight against corruption has received the nod from the UK, which becomes the latest donor to release funds for budget support.
This comes hot on the heels of government assurances that those implicated in the External Payment Arrears account (EPA) scandal who fail to repay the funds stolen from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) will be prosecuted in a month's time.
Already eight former employees of the central bank including the kin of former and current senior government officials and ruling party Members of Parliament, have been charged with forgery and presenting forged certificates to obtain jobs at the bank.
Danish ambassador to Tanzania Bjarne Sørensen said in a statement released in Dar es Salaam that 14 major donors had agreed to release the first tranche of the aid, about 12 per cent of the total budget.
Mr Sørensen said the donor community had been impressed with the steps taken by the government to fight corruption.
"The decision to provide these funds follows close and constructive dialogue between the partners and the government over the past nine months, a period which has seen steps taken to address broader governance challenges as well as specific corruption allegations," he said.
Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Mustafa Mkulo said the UK government has released $184 million ( £103.5 million) under the general budget support programme.
The donors have already released $750 million to the government as part of their general budget support for the 2008/2009 financial year.
Mr Mkulo said that under the Framework Memorandum of Understanding, concluded with the government's budget support partners in January 2006, disbursements of funds is to be done during the first half of the financial year.
The UK is among 14 developments partners who provide general budget support to Tanzania.
Others are the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the World Bank.
The government has been in talks with donors to to release more than $2 billion or 34 per cent of this year's budget that they were withholding following the EPA scandal.
Tanzania unveiled a $ 7.2 billion budget for the 2008/2009 financial year in June.
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