PM tough on moral decay
PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Thursday directed sectoral ministries to effectively oversee implementation of the laws, regulations and guidelines aimed at protecting national morals and values, while taking legal action against immoral individuals and institutions.
The Premier was speaking in the National Assembly when winding up debate on the 173.7bn/- budget estimates for 2023/24 for his office, which was later endorsed in the evening hours.
During the five-day debate, which started last week, several MPs raised concerns over the ongoing moral decay, including same-sex love affairs.
“Sectoral ministries should effectively oversee adherence of the existing laws, regulations and guidelines and take legal action against all found to violate the laws and national morals,” he stated.
Besides the directives issued to the ministries, the PM ordered the civil society organisations to carry out their duties as per their registration licenses.
“Legal measures will be taken against institutions identified to go against objectives of their registration licenses, including motivating moral decay and any acts which are against our traditions, culture and customs,” Mr Majaliwa emphasised.
Elaborating, he assured the House that the country’s laws prohibit such acts and provide various punishments over such offenses including child abuse.
“I assure the MPs that the government has received your views and contributions and it will direct the Law Reform Commission to review them thoroughly in order to identify weaknesses for improvements,” he said.
On other hand, he said, children have remained the main victims of violence.
The government has continued taking measures to protect the children, for instance, following recent reported incidents of child abuses and urge parents and guardians to strengthen relationship and friendship with their children in order to identify indicators of child abuse.
Religious leaders also have been asked to continue reminding their parishioners to observe morals and effectively participate in parenting and guiding their children to good morals.
Meanwhile, Mr Minister Majaliwa ordered councils’ directors to spend the Constituency Development Catalyst Fund according to priorities set by the fund committees in their areas as well as observing the laws guiding the Fund.
He also directed the Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), to ensure that accounting officers in the councils do not act as obstacles in the implementation of priorities in the spending of the money from the constituency fund.
His directive came after some lawmakers told the House that in some councils, the funds were misallocated, particularly when the accounting officers in the councils fail to allow procurement of items prioritised by the committees.
He reminded that the funds are supervised by the law which established the Constituencies Development Catalyst Fund.
This law clearly states that the monies in the Fund would be managed through the committee whose chairperson is an MP for the particular constituency.
İn another development, the PM directed all councils to stop issuing loans from revenues they collected between April and June, 2023, to special groups (youth, women and people with disabilities) as the government was eyeing new method of loans issuance for the next fiscal year.
He said this is in response to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s directives following the misuse of the loaned funds.
There were complaints from legislators over the minimal amount of loans given to the special groups, hence failing to meet the objective of empowering them economically.
That comes with the recently released 2021/22 report of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) observation that there was poor management of the funds in some institutions.
