Local authorities seek autonomy in revenue

Dar es Salaam. The Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania (Alat) wants to be given more autonomy that will enable local councils countrywide to collect more revenue.

Alat chairman Dr Didas Masaburi said yesterday, the association was still holding talks with the central government to look into ways of empowering local authorities in order to get away with unnecessary bureaucracy in the course of discharging their duties.

Dr Masaburi, who is also the Dar es Salaam City mayor, was speaking in Dar es Salaam at a three-day workshop that brought together local government authorities’ leaders from across the country.

They are meeting to discuss challenges facing them and suggest best ways to address them. The Alat meeting coincided with the association’s 30th anniversary.

Dr Masaburi said, local government authorities had made tremendous achievements in solving people’s problems.

He said, his group  was currently participating in the drafting of the devolution policy and legal framework that would help in bringing services closer to the people.

“The devolved system in our authorities will also help in increasing employment opportunities to our people at the grass roots,’’ he added.

On financial discipline, he said, there was a greater improvement, stressing that the Controller and Auditor General (CAG)’s report indicated that many authorities countrywide had unqualified audit reports.

In her opening remarks, the minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Local Governments and Regional Administration), Hawa Ghasia, called for the speeding up of revenue collection in order to implement development projects in their respective areas.

“If you want devolution to be fast-tracked, you should maximise your revenues and stop depending on the central government,” she said.