Government should intensify commitment to stop unnecessary spending

By Eugenia Madhidha

One day, some officials belonging to a certain organisation went for a workshop outside the country which was supposed to go for five days. Unfortunately due to reasons beyond their control, the workshop had to go for four days. And, when they got back to their office they claimed allowances for five days. Interestingly, their employer was wise enough to define the allowances for one day they did not attend the workshop as “unnecessary” which made the officials despondent claiming that they were treated unfairly.

The problem of unnecessary spending has been haunting humanity for a long time, but, just as another man's meat can be another's poison, so is the issue of spending where the classification of ‘unnecessary expenditure’ has been manipulated by some people who hide behind fingers to justify their spending.

However, though it might remain true that what people call unnecessary spending can vary and differ according to perception, the government in this country, realised that there was this problem within its ranks and vowed to tackle it.

It is against this background that, Sikika, a non-governmental that deals with health advocacy in Tanzania, recently warned the government (in a press release) that it should intensify its commitment to stop unnecessary spending for the benefit of the tax-payers and channel the money to developmental projects.

Though it came as good news that the sum of all unnecessary expenditures in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as regions fell from 684 billion (bn) Tanzanian Shillings (TSh) in financial year (FY) 2008/09 to 530 bn TSh in FY 2009/10, which is a reduction of 22.4 percent. But, for the FY 2010/11 these expenditures are expected to rise slightly to 537 bn TSh, a move which contradicts the government’s stated commitment to spend its resources more wisely.

“People have a habit of “over claiming” when it comes to allowances and other benefits such as fuel. For example, someone wants to embark on a journey that will need only one gallon of fuel but will discover that the person claims two gallons. Why would one need two gallons of fuel when one is enough”, said Rufaro Chatora, one of the presenters representing WHO during a monthly breakfast debate organized by Policy Forum on controlling unnecessary expenditure at the British Council Dar es Salaam where the book titled Unnecessary expenditures: A Brief on the Government’s Initiative to Refocus Expenditure was launched.

It is impressive that Sikika in collaboration with Policy Forum, in the brief that can be found at www.sikika.or.tz and its first edition was produced in April 2010, identified six budget items that are considered to be severely laden with unnecessary expenditures as:- Training (domestic and foreign), Allowances (non-discretionary, discretionary, and in-kind), Travel (in-country and out-of-country), Acquisition of New Vehicles, Fuel, Oil and Lubricants and Hospitality Supplies and Services.

As much as the above-mentioned are important, the main concern here is that they are supposed to be reduced, for example, why should we have nine facilitators for one workshop which can be facilitated by three or so people and why should one get paid for attending allowances for five days while in actual fact he or she would have attended three days? Why should we keep on training the same people, the same thing and not giving others a chance?

It is fortunate that the government has also recognized this problem of unnecessary expenditure and has through its top officials like the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda committed to increase control over and economize those expenditures. However, urgent measures have to be taken before the problem gets out of hand. The overwhelming rise of unnecessary expenditures is really distasteful and something has to be done about it as the money wasted can be utilised somewhere else for the benefit of the general public.
Urgent measures, therefore, need to be taken in curbing the problem which in most cases benefits the same group of people. It is high time that the government realizes unnecessary spending has ripple effects as in the long run, leads to failure in service delivery and lagging behind in development, something that disadvantages the public, who in most cases are the taxpayers.
It is also important that the general public have access to information when it comes to budgets, so that they can also be in a position to monitor and follow up on how funds meant to benefit them are used. This will go a long way in empowering wananchi so that their voices can be heard once their funds are misused.
The government should, therefore, put in place measures to curb unnecessary expenditure for the benefit of the public and make Tanzania a better place for everyone.