Dodoma – Wajibu Institute of Public Accountability and Policy Forum on Friday last week launched four simplified accountability reports based on the Controller and Auditor General’s 2024/25 audits, placing delayed implementation of audit recommendations at the centre of a stakeholder discussion on public investment and services.
The reports were launched at Rafiki Hotel under the European Union (EU) co-funded Raia Makini project. Their stated purpose is to make CAG findings more accessible to citizens, civil society, media and public officials, not to replace the underlying audits.
The distinction mattered throughout the discussion, as experts pointed out that while an audit finding can identify a control weakness, irregularity, unaccounted expenditure or risk, it is not by itself proof of theft, corruption or an individual’s criminal liability.
They also cited the law which provides, among other things, for suspected offences to be referred for investigation and consideration by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
One of the reports discussed during the gathering is the procurement report’s three-year compilation of CAG audit data, which put the value of procurement transactions questioned at Sh3.78 trillion in 2024/25, down from Sh12.80 trillion in 2023/24 but above Sh3.32 trillion in 2022/23.
The change, it was pointed out during the discussion, is a fall in the value of transactions queried in different audit domains, not evidence of an equivalent fall in losses or corruption.
Among the clearest service-delivery cases, the CAG found that TANROADS used Sh272.68 billion of its Sh487.82 billion current procurement allocation to settle older contractual claims. Only one of 54 planned works contracts and eight of 90 planned consultancy assignments began in 2024/25, according to the Central Government audit.
The CAG also found that four development projects executed and paid for additional works worth Sh66.08 billion, plus consultancy addenda worth US$2.29 million, without prior approval from the Accounting Officer or Tender Board.
It recommended that TANROADS and TARURA secure the necessary approvals, including development-partner clearance where required, before work is implemented or paid for, as set out in the Development Projects audit.
The simplified report further aggregates procurements made outside the national electronic procurement system, NeST, across central government, local authorities and public bodies.
The underlying audits record separate cases in each domain, where the CAG warned that bypassing the system weakened transparency and the audit trail.
On investment and business, the reports highlighted the CAG’s finding that there was no dedicated policy or law governing public-investment projects outside the Treasury Registrar’s oversight.
They also cited 50 memoranda of understanding submitted through Tanzanian missions between March 2022 and October 2025 that remained pending without feedback to the relevant missions or prospective investors.
The Central Government audit recommended an inter-ministerial mechanism to track and respond to such opportunities.
The reports said 22 of 54 commercial public authorities and other bodies recorded losses in 2024/25, including Air Tanzania, whose reported loss rose to Sh191.19 billion from Sh91.80 billion a year earlier, according to the Public Authorities audit.
Budget pressures reach services
The budget and integrity report said audited total resource mobilisation reached Sh46.82 trillion, or 93.1 per cent of the revised Sh50.29 trillion budget in 2024/25. The shortfall was driven largely by grants, concessional loans and borrowing, while domestic revenue reached 99.4 per cent of target, the CAG reported.
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It linked financing constraints to delayed projects. TARURA received Sh339.81 billion, or 48 per cent of its approved Sh702.44 billion cash-flow allocation, after receiving nothing in the first two quarters; it maintained 10,012 kilometres of the 20,818 kilometres planned, the local-government audit found.
The Central Government audit also recorded Sh137.08 billion in arrears for 285 water projects run by RUWASA and the Ministry of Water, with delays ranging from 24 to 1,265 days beyond contractual deadlines. The CAG attributed the problem primarily to inadequate disbursements from the Treasury and National Water Fund.
The service-delivery report meanwhile cited a national maternal-health audit that found a gap of 207,644 health workers against a requirement of 379,766. It also highlighted medical equipment worth Sh5.17 billion that remained unused in 28 local authorities, with the audit citing shortages of operators, incomplete buildings, reagents, electricity and water constraints.
Its water analysis covered 22 water supply and sanitation authorities and 54 community-based water supply organisations, rather than the entire country. It estimated that about 61.04 million cubic metres, or roughly 71 per cent of annual demand in that audited aggregation, was unmet; the report also said 516 of 4,007 community water points were non-operational.
Other findings included Sh69.37 billion in unreleased textbook funding and Sh2.68 billion in under-released free-education grants in nine local authorities, as presented in the simplified report. In agriculture, the CAG found the Agricultural Inputs Trust Fund disbursed Sh407 million, around four per cent of its Sh10.3 billion smallholder-loan target, according to the MDA audit.
A debate over action
Political cartoonist Masoud Kipanya told the panel that recurring findings suggested officials did not fear consequences. He said his reading of years of audit reports had shown some movement in implementing recommendations, but not at the speed he expected.
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Kipanya said he saw what he described as a possible “syndicate” protecting insiders from action. That, of course, was his interpretation, not an audit finding. He also suggested that some institutions might lack the capacity to act on straightforward recommendations.
CPA Ludovick Utouh, Wajibu’s executive director and a former CAG, urged caution over individual blame. He said audits use samples rather than reviewing every transaction, and that a focused investigation was needed before attributing a specific finding to a particular person.
“When the CAG says expenditure has not been accounted for, he is not saying it is theft,” Mr Utouh said. He argued that auditors and auditees should treat the process as a way of helping accountable officers improve performance, rather than as an automatic confrontation.
Elikana Mtumweni, Director of Public Sector Investment in the President’s Office for Planning and Investment, acknowledged recurring audit matters and weak implementation. He said the government had placed greater emphasis on monitoring and evaluation, including units in ministries and government institutions.
Mtumweni said his office was in the final stages of preparing a public-investment law and proposed public-investment fund, intended to address public enterprises’ capital constraints. It was not clear if either proposal had been enacted, funded or begun operating.
The reports and discussion left a shared question for institutions and stakeholders responsible for public money: whether improved monitoring, legal reforms and audit follow-up will translate into timely corrective action, better services and clearer public accountability.
