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CCM fails test in party subsidy accounting [Citizen, The (Tanzania)](Citizen, The (Tanzania) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dar es Salaam. All major political parties, including the ruling CCM, whose subvention accounts were audited by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) got an adverse audit report, it was announced yesterday. According to the registrar of political parties, nine of 21 registered political parties were audited by the CAG following a directive issued by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in October 2013. PAC ordered the CAG to review the expenditure of billions of shillings of taxpayers' money given to the parties in the 2009/2010 to 2012/2013 financial years. The findings of the special audit were made public during a meeting with the PAC members by Assistant Auditor-General Benja Majura in the presence of the registrar of political parties, Judge (retired) Francis Mutungi. According to the report, six political parties that are not represented in Parliament got a disclaimer opinion. Political parties that got a qualified opinion, according to Mr Majura, include CCM, Chadema, CUF and NCCR Mageuzi. UDP was the only political party that is represented in Parliament that was not audited. According to Mr Majura, the other six political parties that were audited got disclaimer opinions after the documents they presented before the CAG failed to match party accounts. They include the National Reconstruction Alliance (NRA), Union for Multi-Party and Democracy (UMD), Africa Progressive Party of Tanzania (APPT Maendeleo), National League for Democracy (NLD), Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC), Sauti ya Umma (SAU) and Chama cha Ukombozi wa Umma (Chauma). Political parties that did not submit their audited reports risk losing some of the money they receive through grants. According to Judge Mutungi, Section 18 (4) of the 1992 Political Parties Act requires that his office withhold the grants should a party fail to submit an audited report. The deputy registrar of political parties, Mr Sisty Nyahoza, said Section 18 (5) of the same Act gives the registrar powers to report to police any political party or politicians implicated in embezzlement of public funds. He added: "The registrar has powers to report them to police so they can investigate and bring the culprit before legal organs." Eight political parties that are represented in Parliament and in full councils are entitled to grants from the government. The parties and the amount of money they receive annually, in brackets, are CCM (Sh12.23 billion), Chadema (Sh2.8 billion), CUF (Sh1.5 billion), NCCR (Sh149.9 million), UDP (Sh60.4 million), TLP (Sh51.7 million), APPT Maendeleo (Sh3.3 million) and DP (Sh1.08 million). The CAG told the committee that his office experienced various challenges during the auditing of the accounts, including the fact that many political parties do not have professional accountants. Various laws that govern political parties also contradict each other. "The Political Parties Act require the CAG to audit political parties by September so that they can submit their report by the end of October," Mr Majura said, "but political parties close their books of accounts at the end of a calendar year--and this makes it very difficult for auditors." It is also hard for his office to independently verify party property that is declared in the forms since most of them are "invincible". According to Mr Majura, some political parties want the CAG to audit accounts, including grants, but not those that affect money contributed by members and other institutions. Some political parties that were audited did not have bank accounts, which made the work of the auditors very difficult. Most political parties that do not receive grants from the government have no offices. To address this, the registrar of political parties said, his office is working on a recommendation that political parties can be given grants only if they have qualified accountants. PAC directed the Registrar of Political Parties to prepare guidelines to help political parties close their accounts books. PAC Chairman Zitto Kabwe had this to say: "Since you have said that India has succeeded in this, we (PAC) will organise a trip so that your officials along with those from the registrar's office, the CAG and some MPs visit India and learn from their experience." (c) 2014 Mwananchi Communications . All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |