Gangi Longa
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 5, 2010
- 275
- 135
20th February 10
Tanzania will still need aid for next two decades - WB
Angel Navuri
A World Bank lead economist, Paulo Zacchia, has said Tanzania will still need financial assistance, especially in developing its infrastructure, in the next 20 years, despite the increasing level of financial indiscipline by some government officials.
Zacchia was responding to a question posed by a Tanzania Association of Non Governmental Organisations (TANGO) programme officer yesterday, who had sought to know the position of the bank on financial assistance to Tanzania in view of the increasing level of financial indiscipline by some government officials.
Despite misuse of funds, Tanzania will still be receiving funds from the bank for the next 20 years because the government still needs financial assistance, which is what is the general tendency even with the developed countries, Zacchia told a meeting on government budget expenditure review in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Citing the example of China, Zacchia said that some countries that were already developed, still received funds from donors.
The TANGO programme officer, Mussa Billegeya, said various reports prepared by the donors showed that huge sums of money in donor aid were missing on the ground when it came to project implementation, a situation he described as worrisome.
Various reports show that billions of shillings are set aside to support development activities in various sectors, but when one goes to the actual projects where the money had been ploughed, they wonder where all the financial aid had gone. It is
From Page 1
always reported that our government still misuse donor funds and exercise a higher level of financial indiscipline. Despite all this it continues to get even bigger amounts of aid from the donors, Billegeya explained.
He asked the World Bank to explain why the donors were not working out a mechanism to ensure that the money extended to the government in form of aid was not misused.
For his part, speaking on the impact of foreign aid, the banks country director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, John Murray, said the World Bank did not allow financing of large projects that could not be financed from one year to the next.
The question is what is the impact of that? He asked and added: The impact is less than it should be because the government is not respecting its own formula of allocating funds, Murray answered the question he had posed himself.
However, an independent analyst of the government budget says that the government is committed to economic growth and poverty reduction, with roughly 70 per cent of its estimates allocated for the National Strategic Programme for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (Mkukuta).
A closer look at the review, nevertheless, shows that budget allocation and actual spending have not always been well aligned, he observes.
Emmanuel Mungunasi, another World Bank economist said in a presentation on Public Expenditure Review that while the 2009/10 budget has adequately responded to the impact of the global financial crisis, its credibility as a strategic resource allocation instrument has been weakened by two things.
He mentioned them as the unrealistic revenue projections on the one hand, and the deteriorating alignment between the expenditure and Mkukuta objectives, on the other.
Thanks to the modernisation of the tax administration in Tanzania and the countrys strong macroeconomic performance; domestic revenue as a percentage of the GDP has increased from 10.8 per cent in the financial year 2002 /03 to close to 16 per cent during the 2008/09 financial year. However, there is still room for improvement, Mungunasi said.
Due to this, he said, a recent study by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department shows that the shortfall in tax revenue due to policy and administrative shortcomings was about 5.8 per cent of the total collection for the 2008/09 financial year.
THE GUARDIAN
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/functions/print_article.php?l=13683
Tanzania will still need aid for next two decades - WB
Angel Navuri
A World Bank lead economist, Paulo Zacchia, has said Tanzania will still need financial assistance, especially in developing its infrastructure, in the next 20 years, despite the increasing level of financial indiscipline by some government officials.
Zacchia was responding to a question posed by a Tanzania Association of Non Governmental Organisations (TANGO) programme officer yesterday, who had sought to know the position of the bank on financial assistance to Tanzania in view of the increasing level of financial indiscipline by some government officials.
Despite misuse of funds, Tanzania will still be receiving funds from the bank for the next 20 years because the government still needs financial assistance, which is what is the general tendency even with the developed countries, Zacchia told a meeting on government budget expenditure review in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Citing the example of China, Zacchia said that some countries that were already developed, still received funds from donors.
The TANGO programme officer, Mussa Billegeya, said various reports prepared by the donors showed that huge sums of money in donor aid were missing on the ground when it came to project implementation, a situation he described as worrisome.
Various reports show that billions of shillings are set aside to support development activities in various sectors, but when one goes to the actual projects where the money had been ploughed, they wonder where all the financial aid had gone. It is
From Page 1
always reported that our government still misuse donor funds and exercise a higher level of financial indiscipline. Despite all this it continues to get even bigger amounts of aid from the donors, Billegeya explained.
He asked the World Bank to explain why the donors were not working out a mechanism to ensure that the money extended to the government in form of aid was not misused.
For his part, speaking on the impact of foreign aid, the banks country director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, John Murray, said the World Bank did not allow financing of large projects that could not be financed from one year to the next.
The question is what is the impact of that? He asked and added: The impact is less than it should be because the government is not respecting its own formula of allocating funds, Murray answered the question he had posed himself.
However, an independent analyst of the government budget says that the government is committed to economic growth and poverty reduction, with roughly 70 per cent of its estimates allocated for the National Strategic Programme for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (Mkukuta).
A closer look at the review, nevertheless, shows that budget allocation and actual spending have not always been well aligned, he observes.
Emmanuel Mungunasi, another World Bank economist said in a presentation on Public Expenditure Review that while the 2009/10 budget has adequately responded to the impact of the global financial crisis, its credibility as a strategic resource allocation instrument has been weakened by two things.
He mentioned them as the unrealistic revenue projections on the one hand, and the deteriorating alignment between the expenditure and Mkukuta objectives, on the other.
Thanks to the modernisation of the tax administration in Tanzania and the countrys strong macroeconomic performance; domestic revenue as a percentage of the GDP has increased from 10.8 per cent in the financial year 2002 /03 to close to 16 per cent during the 2008/09 financial year. However, there is still room for improvement, Mungunasi said.
Due to this, he said, a recent study by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department shows that the shortfall in tax revenue due to policy and administrative shortcomings was about 5.8 per cent of the total collection for the 2008/09 financial year.
THE GUARDIAN
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/functions/print_article.php?l=13683
