‘Government will implement all planned projects’

DODOMA: THE government has expressed its commitment to finalising implementation of all projects it started, saying no project will be abandoned.

Minister for Finance Dr Mwigulu Nchemba expressed the commitment on Thursday when contributing to the report tabled by the Chairperson of the Local Authorities Accounts Committee (LAAC), Ms Halima Mdee.

The report assessed and evaluated the performance of local authorities, including the implementation of development projects in 184 councils between February 2024 and January 2025.

The minister was prompted to issue the government commitment after the committee, in its report, raised concern on the slow pace in the implementation of development projects; some of which had stalled.

He said the slow pace witnessed in the implementation of some development projects in some district councils was caused by a number of factors, including meagre funding.

According to the minister, failure to dish out sufficient funds to finance the planned projects resulted from decisions made by the government to focus on certain strategic projects such the Julius Nyerere Power Project (JNHPP), Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the emergency of unforeseen eventualities.

“Apart from the decision we made on JNHPP and SGR, we also had to address some other eventualities such as floods in some regions caused by El-nino rains that triggered disasters in some regions,” Dr Mwigulu said.

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The Deputy Minister of State in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) Ms Zainab Katimba said, with effect from next financial year, allocation of funds for the projects will consider the geographical area where the projects will be implemented.

She was responding to the argument raised by the committee that some projects in some councils had stalled despite the government issuing the funds.

Giving an example, Ms Katimba said, with effect from next financial year, the government will be allocating between 22m/- and 25m/- for a classroom when implementing school construction projects, while a dispensary project will receive between 284m/- and 358m/-.

Presenting the committee report, Ms Mdee said during the assessment and evaluation carried out on the flow of funds for the projects from the central government, the committee learnt that the trend was not good.

She said failure to disburse funds on time has caused delay in projects implementation.

In another development, the committee said transferring District Council Executive Directors (DEDs) from one work station to another must be made after the appointing authority has satisfied itself that their files are clean.

In its report, the committee said a tendency of transferring the director from one work station to another after committing offences has been creating difficulties for the committee, especially when the watchdog entity seeks answers on certain issues. Chadema Special Seats legislator Ms Esther Bulaya strongly opposed the practice.

“In the operations of the committee, there have been cases whereby when it (committee) seeks answers on certain pertinent issues from the DED, the director simply answers that he/she is not aware of the matter since he/she is new at the working station. This is not p