THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) saved 14.2bn/- in 2021/2022 financial year in 1,548 development projects worth 5.64tri/- it monitored.
In its 2021/2022 report which was presented to President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dar es Salam yesterday, PCCB Director General Salum Hamdun said that the monitoring aimed at checking spending of public funds.
He said the monitoring based on assessing the value for money in relevant projects, fund disbursement and adherence to the estimations of construction materials.
Mr Hamdun said that the monitoring was done in health, education, finance, construction, water, social services and agriculture projects.
The bureau monitored Julius Nyerere Hydropower Power Project (JNHPP), Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), construction of agricultural resource centres, 70 water projects worth 60.7bn/- and projects being implemented through constituency development fund.
Mr Hamdun noted that, in a period between 2021 and 2022, PCCB through various operations saved 14.2bn/- and USD 14,571 of which 8.4bn/- was from tax evasion and 2.6bn/- which could have been embezzled was recovered and taken back to the respective development projects.
He noted that the remaining amount was paid back to citizens who were denied their payments in primary cooperative union in Manyara, Rukwa, Katavi, Kigoma, Morogoro, Mtwara, Simiyu, Pwani, Songwe, Tanga and Mwanza regions.
He said through the monitoring the shortfalls identified in the projects were addressed and adjustments were done without causing losses to the government.
The PCCB boss further noted that in efforts to prevent corruption and loss of public funds, the bureau also provided education to the projects managers on the use of force account.
"The involvement of the public in preventing corruption has yielded positive results because citizens have been part and parcel in the fight against the vice in the country by disclosing those involved and be ready to testify before the court," he said.
PCCB also conducted investigations and concluded 1,188 cases including 16 files of major corruption cases which involved embezzlement of 8bn/- for Bus Rapid Transit Project , 3bn/- for the National Health Insurance Fund and 4.7bn/- for the National Microfinance Bank.
He added that other 100 cases were raised from the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report, eight cases involved misappropriation of covd-19 relief fund and 34 cases were related to misappropriation of funds in Simiyu Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS),
On the other hand, PCCB boss noted that through the investigation his office was able to save 40.73 million US dollars that could have been lost for failure by the Tanzania Electrical Supply Company (TANESCO) to comply with the terms of gas exchange contract with PanAfrican Energy Petroleum Tanzania Ltd (PAET).
The PCCB continues to implement President Samia's instructions to prevent acts of corruption before they occur professionally and in accordance with the law and has been working with local and International stakeholders in the fight against the vice including citizens, government authorities, ZAECA, Woman's fund, Tanzania Trust and the Media.
The Bureau also investigated 482 Covid -19 funds projects worth 248.45bn/- including construction of classrooms, teachers' houses, dormitories, renovation of hospitals and emergency services buildings.
During the investigation 237 projects were found to have shortcomings and their implementation was weak, based on drawings and Bill of Quantities (BoQ) issued by the ministry, unsatisfactory quality of work caused by poor management, non-compliance with public procurement law number 7 of 2011 and its regulations of 2013.
Other shortcomings found by PCCB were bidding processed without specifications for purchased products, purchase of construction materials with high prices than the market price.
PCCB also conducted analysis of 739 systems with the aim of identifying corruption loopholes and advising the best way to address the problem in Kibong'oto hospital, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), Mbeya Regional Hospital, Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI), Ocean Road Cancer Institute, four district hospitals, five health centres and nine dispensaries
An analysis in the system of the Ministry of Health revealed that some health products are affected by the non-adherence to the guidelines for the use of donation funds of 2017 where 50 percent of the income should be used for the purchase of drugs.
Other weaknesses in the use of the system of drugs in health centres due to lack of regular inspection of health products, poor management and failure to use electronic systems in providing health services.
PCCB conducted analysis of the Government Procurement Services Agency (GPSA), in 65 public institutions in 18 regions in the Mainland and found that services and products were not available on time especially the purchase of vehicles.
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Analysis showed that , GPSA spends a lot of time collecting the goods and public institutions do not pay on time or do not pay at all after the service is provided.
In Dar es Salaam port PCCB identified service areas with corruption signs including the area of customs, cargo handling, revenue in the port and inspections carried out by port institutions.
Investigations revealed that risks of corruption are caused by incompatible systems, Government Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) Cargo system, Tanzania Customs Integrated System (TANCIS), customers not knowing the procedures to get services and lack of accountability by some authorities.
In controlling corruption, PCCB made 459 meetings with the stakeholders of the areas that were analyzed, researched to agree on strategies to close the loopholes of corruption and got 1,642 recommendations and among them 1348 equal to 83.9 percent were implemented.
The DG said that at the end development projects were able to be implemented with the intended quality and the citizens have been able to get the good services as they deserve and on time.
