The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Police Force to ensure that all collections, including road fines are made electronically to help check all loopholes of dishonesty and increase government revenue.
PAC Deputy Chairman Deo Filikunjombe issued the directive on Thursday when the committee met senior police officials at the Parliament’s Sub-Head Office in Dar es Salaam.
He also pointed out that such electronic system should be integrated with Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) in a view of helping the tax body record all payments made.
“This system, among other things, will mitigate unnecessary bureaucracies and ensure that all collections made fall on the government’s pocket unlike now where some funds landed on wrong hands,” he explained.
For instance, on road fines, he said, a motorist who has been fined through that electronic system will help TRA also record the number of road offences committed by drivers and the fine they paid.
The committee also issued six-month ultimatum to the Force to make sure that it clears all outstanding debt it owes some suppliers instead of waiting for the central government.
Debts amounting to over 3bn/- was yet to be paid by Police Force to such dealers who supplied various items for internal uses. Mr Filikunjombe pointed out that the government, through the Treasury, had already dished out some 15bn/- to the Police Force accounts thus there was no reason for delaying clearing such debts.
On the other hand, Controller and Auditor General (CAG) 2012/2013 reports have shown that the force performed well and emerged with a clean certificate.
Mr Filikunjombe noted that there was no doubt in CAG reports regarding the force, which shows that the law enforcing organ adhered to all financial regulations while all their expenditures were justified.
In what could be termed as nothing but a puzzle, the Deputy PAC Chairman asserted that even higher learning institutions — University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and University of Dodoma (UDOM), which are producing top talents in accounts have never emerged with clean certificates in the CAG reports.
“Since we have started auditing these higher learning institutions, they have never performed excellently despite the fact most of the experts come from there,” he noted.
Originally published on DailyNews