NIMEONA: HOW PUBLIC FUNDS ARE SQUANDERED OFFICIALLY

This is an example of how good intentions by the central government and the general public to construct development projects in Tanzania is prevented from producing expected results by intermediaries at the district level. An arrangement in which, villagers in need of a school, a classroom, a teachers house or a dispensary are given assistance by the central government in the form of building materials as long as they are prepared to provide the labour component is quite attractive to both the beneficiaries and the government. To the beneficiaries because they get an opportunity to create a sense of ownership of the project through first hand input and to the government because its scanty resources are then available to more projects elsewhere having been relieved of the cost of labour.

The arrangement however, is attractive only on paper. The constant moving around of District Executive Directors and their subordinates which has of late become quite prominent, especially under political scrutiny and pressure, attests to this. In the administrative structure of this country it is at the district level that massive amounts of public funds go missing, especially as the districts themselves are many, so far they are 129 and still counting, each comprising of approximately 40 villages clustered into wards. Earlier we had regional administrative structures overseeing districts, but the regional level is now practically moribund.

As matters now stand, money intended for rural development is administered through district executive directors offices, where all the necessary technocrats are, and needless to say, all the shenanigans. The following is a series of pictures taken of a teachers house which was under construction in Makuyuni village , Makuyuni ward, Moshi rural district in Kilimanajaro during the tenure of the former district executive director for Moshi rural,Engineer! Mwahalende and her team.The house was intended for one of the teachers at Kilimo Makuyuni Primary school and its construction has been stopped for “TECHNICAL REASONS” But what of the lost efforts of the villagers? and the funds with which the cement,steel bars,timber,nails etc were supposedly purchased,what of those?, furthermore was anyone brought to task, if so who?