PCCB smells rat in projects

DODOMA: THE Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has raised red flags of corruption in the execution of some development projects in the country.

The development comes after the bureau monitored the utilisation of public resources in 1,800 development projects in the country worth 7.7 tri/-. PCCB Director General CP Salum Hamduni issued an alert on Thursday when presenting the bureau’s performance report for 2022/23 financial year to President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Chamwino State House in Dodoma.

According to him, the PCCB deliberately kept an eye on the development projects in order to spot corruption indicators, Bill of Quantity (BOQ), and value for money. “Out of 1,800 development projects monitored by PCCB, 171 projects worth 143.3 bn/- were poorly implemented,” PCCB boss asserted. Adding: “The monitored projects were in the construction, finance, water, agriculture and buildings sector.” Following the irregularities, he said the bureau came up with 3,068 recommendations to rectify the shortfalls identified in the projects.

“We issued the recommendations to ensure that adjustments of projects are made either at the expense of the contractor He added that a total of 2,740 recommendations were worked upon, equivalent to 89.4 per cent.

In line, he said the bureau also monitored 12 projects for construction of irrigation infrastructure worth 107.4bn/- in Morogoro, Dodoma, Iringa, Tabora and Mbeya and the results also showed corruption loopholes in which some were not registered by Engineers Registration Board (ERB) and Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA).

The PCCB boss further said that the bureau took various measures, including ensuring that adjustments are made to the relevant projects so that the government does not incur losses. In addition, he said PCCB carried out 790 tasks of analysis of service delivery systems for the objective of identifying corruption loopholes and advising on better ways to improve the situation.

The tasks included evaluation on the use of Force Account in the execution of construction projects. According to him, the assessment was carried out due to the challenges facing the projects, where some of them were executed below standards with high cost, and not complying with procurement procedures.

He said the analysis revealed that besides the shortage of expertise, several executives in charge of such projects had little knowledge of the procurement procedures.

To get rid of the shortcomings, PCCB submitted recommendations to Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Minister of State-President’s Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government to ensure regular provision of education on the use of Force Account and observing procurement the regulations.

“We recommended the cost of projects implemented by Force Account should be limited,” he emphasised.

In a related development, PCCB DG said the bureau also conducted an investigation of the files based on the last year’s report of the Uhuru Torch race leader where 20 projects were rejected.

Adding: “Of the total files, investigation of 12 files has been completed, while others are at different levels of implementation including one suspect who has been taken to court and found guilty, one file was transferred to the Police Force, others are at the National Prosecution Office (NPS) and eight files are still under investigation.” More so, he said PCCB in collaboration with NPS investigates and imposed restrictions on assets that are suspected to have been obtained through corruption.

Coupled with that, he said this financial year PCCB will continue to intensify efforts in carrying out its duties based on various priorities including preventing corruption acts before they occur in development projects.

“PCCB will cooperate with stakeholders to encourage accountability among them in the fight against corruption, educate citizens and stakeholders to bolster cooperation with the government in combating corruption,” he underlined.

He added that the bureau will continue to monitor corruption acts and take appropriate measures particularly in government revenue collections as well as to the areas that provide important social services.

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