Dodoma — THE government has reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing accountability and transparency within the public service as well as strengthening expenditure information management systems, in order to curb loopholes which trigger revenue leakages.
Inaugurating the sixth phase Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PFMRP) for (2022/23 2026/27), Zanzibar Minister of State in the President's Office, Finance and Planning, Dr Saada Mkuya Salum said the move is aimed at strengthening financial management systems.
She said the sixth phase government has taken further steps to re-open the dialogue with development partners and potential investors, while enhancing accountability and transparency within the public service.
"We are eager to explore more opportunities in strengthening financial resource mobilisation, including formalisation of the informal sector to capture its contribution into the tax net," she said.
Adding "Our governments will continue to strengthen the use of electronic device systems in collection of tax and non-tax revenue, as well as enforcing measures to control tax evasion".
She expressed the government commitment to strengthen expenditure information management systems, in order to curb loopholes which trigger expenditure leakages, while observing mechanisms for quality service delivery.
The finance and planning minister, paid attention on the importance of efficient and effective use of public resources and assets in service delivery, as well as management of development interventions.
In order to achieve the same, she assured for strengthening the oversight functions with a view to reinforcing compliance to laws, rules, regulations and sustaining financial discipline in all spending units.
Through the PFMRP Phase VI, the governments will focus on reviewing all legislations, which do not conform to value for money. Consequently, she said, all spending units will be duty-bound to control unnecessary expenditures and illegitimate use of public assets.
She urged all stakeholders to be proactive and take their charges in order to attain the country's set goals as planned.
The minister acknowledged stakeholders and development partners' support, particularly in education, health, water, roads and energy sectors.
Giving the programme overview, the PFMRP VI Coordinator, Mr Denis Mihayo said it has designed and come up with five priority areas of interventions.
He mentioned the areas as improving domestic revenue collection and external resources mobilisation, improving planning and budget management, enhancing financial management and reporting, strengthening public procurement and asset management and improving audit and oversight functions.
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"The strategy has been developed based on the findings of the PEFA 2022 assessment report, review of implementation of PFMRP V and other Public Finance Management (PFM) diagnostic reports with consideration of gender and climate change as cross-cutting issues," he underscored.
The development of the programme is termed as collaborative and participatory as he paid special gratitude to development partners for their valuable comments.
Mr Mihayo said implementation of the sixth phase is a continuation of the government commitment to reforming its Public Finance Management as a milestone in achieving Vision 2025 for Mainland Tanzania, Vision 2050 for Zanzibar, as well as the Third Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP III).
He was optimistic in the achievement of the national development agenda through effective and efficient implementation of the programmes, which will eventually contribute to the improvement of service delivery.
