THE Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Stephen Kagaigai has advised the leadership of Moshi Municipal Council (MMC) to be vigilant in carrying out its responsibilities, especially those related to various tax collections related to the council in accordance with the law.
Mr Kagaigai made the remarks recently, in Moshi, within the region during this year’s special session of the council to review the report and directives of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) concerning the council.
“According to the CAG’s report, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, there are needs to ensure that the councillors and the management work very closely in monitoring them so that they can be addressed quickly”, he said.
He added, “for example the Municipal Director (MD) should be very close to the council’s legal department to monitor the issues raised by the CAG and which are still subject to in court are resolved quickly”.
Mr Kagaigai also urged the councillors and the management in general to make sure they follow closely all issues which are subject to tax collections as far as the council is concerned so as to make sure the government gets its revenues through the council as per the available regulations.
Commenting on the challenge on the delaying of the repayment of loans provided by the council to women, youths and people with disabilities, Mr Kagaigai appealed to the council’s leadership to involve local government officials so as to facilitate the repayment of the loans quickly.
He went on to advise the councillors and the management of the council to continue cooperating in finding new sources of revenue for the council due to the fact that there were still many potential areas that were good enough to increase the council’s revenues.
On welcoming RC Kagaigai to address the council, the Kilimanjaro Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) Mr Willy Machumu called on the council to ensure that the issues raised by the CAG and which were still subject to court are resolved as soon as possible so as to allow the council to continue with other development activities.
He also called on the internal auditors of all councils within the region to be vigilant in carrying out their duties in order to avoid the existence of many issues, especially those related to the use of government funds.
“Councillors have a responsibility to monitor closely the performance of the internal auditors, this will help to monitor very well the utilisation of public funds”, he said.
Earlier, the Moshi Municipal Council Managing Director Dr Ramadhan Gembe said that there were a total of 67 arguments, of which 38 were closed and that there were still 29 of them which are in different stages of implementation.
“Of those 29, six are still subject to court, three are policy related and the other 20 are still in various stages of implementation”, he said, adding, the council was subject to unqualified opinion certificate (clean certificate) for the 10th consecutive year.