INCREASED requests for special audits are a sign of growing trust and appreciation of usefulness of the country's audit office among government stakeholders and the society, it was revealed yesterday.

The Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Mr Ludovick Utouh, made the remarks in Dar es Salaam at the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Phase III (2013/15) of the Institutional Co-operation between the Tanzanian and Swedish National Audit Offices.

"The preceding National Audit Office Development Projects (NAODP) have played a greater role and contributed to the growing credibility of the audit office among stakeholders in the country and elsewhere," he said.For example, the NAODP II contributed substantially to the audit office computer fleet growing from 422 in 2008 to 703 last year.

He said the need to promote NAODP to the third phase arises from the need to continue and complete the new way of undertaking financial audits. "It is extremely significant to continue upgrading performance audit with much more rigour and focus through a structured recruitment and continued formal and on the job training with the audit office at the beginning of the project," he added.

The Auditor General of Sweden, Mr Jan Landahl phase III project aims to sustain the development level that has been reached through NAODP I and II. "Sustainability has been obviously an important objective throughout the project," he said. By becoming member of the UN Board of auditors for six years, he said it demonstrates and reflects the high calibre of organization that the NAOT has grown to be.

"You are a growing organisation and the UN task adds to the need for recruitment of new staff, something that should be born in mind while implementing phase III project," he said. The Swedish Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Lennarth Hjelmaker, underscored the need for the parties to work out on the CAG recommendations as a way of enhancing transparency in the country.