THE former President of Union of Tanzania Press Clubs (UTPC), Kenneth Simbaya has commended President Dr. John Pombe Magufuli’s braveness of cleaning the mess within the government, including fighting corruption.
Simbaya said that the measure that the president was taking aimed at bringing efficiency and boosting collection of government revenue for improving provision of social services such as education and health.
Speaking to the Guardian yesterday during a telephone interview, he said the government should improve the collection of domestic revenue, in order to raise the health budget, particularly for HIV/AIDS, maternal health, pregnant women and infants.
He said that the government should be committed to collect domestic revenue and prevent embezzlement of public funds in order to improve the education and health sectors, rather than depending on donor funds which sometime comes with strings or sometimes doesn’t come.
He said that his stance of forming lean cabinet and reducing of massive public expenditure, it is a typical example of the leader who is committed to improve the living standards of his people, adding that that will restore the government esteem and dignity.
He observed that what President Dr. Maguguli’s doing by cutting down on unnecessary public expenditure it is a typical Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) process which requires wise spending of public funds instead of using external resources.
Domestic Resource Mobilization (D.R.M.) refers to the generation of savings from domestic resources and their allocation to economically and socially productive investments. Such resource allocation can come from both the public and private sectors.
Following the ongoing improvement of quantity and quality of social services, and the productive sectors in general, spending needs of Tanzania are growing rapidly and more than the foreign resources can actually meet.
Although revenue collection as a percentage of GDP has recently increased, from 11.8% in 2004/05 to 17.9% in 2008/09, it is still not enough and ought to grow much faster.
Domestic revenue is expected to contribute 56% to the total revenue in 2009/10, while 33% will be coming as foreign grants and loans, this is according to the Department of Economics University of Dar es Salaam Draft Report of 2010.
However, Tanzania is among African countries that have failed to achieve the objectives of setting aside 15 percent of its national budget for the health sector based on Abuja resolution being reached in 2001.
The resolution has been achieved by the leaders of the African Union (AU) in their meeting in Abuja, Nigeria where, among other things they discussed the challenges facing the health sector in Africa.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are only six countries in Africa which has managed to set aside 15% of their budgets towards health sector.
These countries that reached Abuja declaration include Rwanda with 23.8%, Liberia 18.9%, Malawi 18.5%, Zambia 16%, Togo 15.4% and Madagascar 15.3%.
Recently, the newly elected President Dr. John Magufuli has inaugurated the East African country’s 11th Parliament and vowed to clean the mess within the government, including fighting corruption.
President Magufuli also mentioned a list of other measures aimed at bringing efficiency and boosting collection of government revenue for improving provision of social services such as education and health.
He mentioned such measures as a ban on foreign travels by public servants, forming a lean cabinet and cutting down on unnecessary public expenditure.
"During 2013, 2014 and 2015 a total of 178 million US dollars was spent on foreign travel by public servants," he told the august House, adding "This amount could have been used to construct 400 kilometres of tarmac road.”
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