Findings show that civil society organizations (CSOs) can play an important role in enhancing transparency and good governance in developing countries by contributing to increased public debate on issues surrounding the formulation and implementation of government budgets as well as in supporting greater transparency of public revenues.
Tanzania has a wealth of natural, cultural and man-made attractions in all parts of the country which are untapped from the standpoint of tourism development. Although the potential is there, not all areas can be developed in the foreseeable future because of the problems of inadequate access, poor infrastructure and lack of utilities.
The government has been urged to support the cost-sharing and applications of joint title-deeds or co-occupancy in land titling in Tanzania to reduce the burden borne by poor individuals when seeking to formalise land ownership and to tackle the inequality between men and women in land access. This call was made during the August 2018 Policy Forum Monthly Breakfast Debate.
CSOs in Tanzania have called for increased clarity of the division of functions and responsibilities of the central and local government administrations in the country if decentralisation by devolution is to work. This includes clarification on property registration and valuation responsibilities, and obligations on the maintenance of property registers and revenue data.
The 2018 Financial Secrecy Index, a tool for measuring global financial secrecy and secrecy jurisdictions, presents some worrying signs for the emerging economies in Africa and threaten to potentially undermine the sustainability of their development trajectory. Tanzania scored a high secrecy score of 73. Surprisingly, even with these attractive secrecy policies, it is only recently that the jurisdiction has been brought under the spotlight.
For a country like Tanzania to meet its inclusive development objectives and realistically fund essential services such as provision of clean and safe water, healthcare, education and infrastructure, it needs reliable sources of own revenue including from taxes. Moreover, an economy needs a tax policy that redistributes wealth to address inequality including redressing gender gaps within society.
The Policy Forum (PF) Budget Working Group welcomes yet another opportunity to share views regarding the performance of previous budgets and propose some recommendations that we believe are worth consideration during current parliamentary deliberations for the 2018/19 budget to be concluded late in June.
The Executive Director of Kepa, a Finnish NGO network, Timo Lappalainen (left) and Communications Officer Mirka Kartano (first right) with Policy Forum Coordinator, Semkae Kilonzo (second left) and Kepa Tanzania Country Director, Bakar Khamis Bakar (second right).
The recently released 2016/17 Controller & Auditor General Report has revealed a number of challenges relating to effective financial accountability at the local level including under and over-disbursements, massive amounts of unspent funds by local government authorities, drop in revenue collections and ineffective use of spent monies.