{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Step up fight on culture of abuse use of resources - Opinion/Editorial | The Citizen

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/oped/Step-up-fight-on-culture-of-abuse-use-of-resources/-/1840568/2967742/-/ourv9w/-/index.html

Step up fight on culture of abuse use of resources - Opinion/Editorial

Some otherwise poor Tanzanian families are known to spend millions upon millions of shillings for a wedding ceremony, the aftermath of which is agonisingly long periods of debt repayment.

Family members and friends of the couples to-be are made to contribute heavily towards opulent functions.

Few Tanzanians care to contribute towards anyone's medical bill or studies, but many will gladly help to facilitate someone's kitchen, send-off or wedding party. It has become part of our culture.

In the public sector, accounting officers set aside colossal amounts of money to fund unnecessary travel, retreats, seminars and all sorts of activities that could effectively be handled at the workplace.

Chief executive officers in both private and public sectors are ready to fund extravagant end-of-year parties at exclusive hotels even where employees go without salaries for months!

In other democracies where public office is essentially about accountability, some individuals weep in privacy and pray for divine guidance when they are appointed to high office. In our case, many such appointees go into a jubilatory frenzy, for to them, it means they have landed the proverbial "opportunity to eat". A chance for quick wealth! That Tanzania, one of the world's poorest nations, spent Sh356.3 billion in air tickets and allowances between 2013 and 2015, is very disturbing!

President John Magufuli graphically noted that some Tanzanian public officials make more taxpayer-financed trips abroad than visits to their parents in the rural areas.

We see hope in Tanzania's 5th phase presidency under Dr Magufuli. He has spoken openly—and acted in some few cases already—against senseless use of public funds, like when he cut the budget for the party that followed his inauguration of the 11th Parliament from Sh225 million to Sh24 million.

That is it, Mr President! Veto all forms of extravagant budgets and all Tanzanians of good will—who are an overwhelming majority—will be with you all the way.

BE PROACTIVE ON DEMOLITIONS

The operation to demolish structures built in prohibited areas in Dar es Salaam Region's Kinondoni District, illustrates the fierce conflict between humanitarian considerations and compliance with the law. The pain, for victims and sympathisers, caused by homelessness, destitution, and the challenge of recovery for people whose residential houses and business premises have been flattened by bulldozers, is incalculable.

However, wananchi need to cultivate a culture of strict compliance with land use laws and regulations and stop banking on humanitarian considerations as a shield against enforcement.

That fresh steam being injected into enforcement is not surprising, for being at the helm of State administration, President John Magufuli, now freed from ministerial restrictions, is pursuing a no–holds–barred approach.

Some people had felt that, his aborted directive for demolition of the Tanesco headquarters building in Dar es Salaam because it was on the Morogoro Highway reserve, had been wild.

Much earlier, his father's house in Chato, where he had been raised, and to which he was sentimentally attached, was not spared of demolition to pave the way for a major road.

But the proactive approach is key to avoiding heartache, and the government being branded inhumane. Wananchi should be adequately sensititised, and authorities should block illegal land development activities right at their infancy.

Step up fight on culture of abuse use of resources - Opinion/Editorial | The Citizen

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/oped/Step-up-fight-on-culture-of-abuse-use-of-resources/-/1840568/2967742/-/ourv9w/-/index.html

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