Tanzania’s Magufuli sacks officials who failed to recall public works budget figures
Tanzanian President John Magufuli sacked two senior officials late on Monday after they failed to recall immediately how much money was allocated by the government in their respective districts for public road construction projects.
According to a statement issued by the president’s office, the sacked directors of the Bukoba Municipal Council, Erasto Aron Mfungale and the Director of the Bukoba Rural Municipal Council, Mwantum Kitwana Dau, would be assigned to other duties, Reuters reports.
The office did not give a reason for the official’s sackings. The two officials however, were dismissed just hours after the president summoned them at a public gathering and demanded that they announce exactly how much was allocated by the government for road construction in their districts.
“You can’t talk to me like that,” Magufuli said at the launch of a new airport in the lakeside town of Bukoba, which was televised live. Dau had informed the president that she oversees many departments and could therefore not immediately recall the exact budget allocated for road projects, the report said.
Magufuli, nicknamed “the Bulldozer” for his infrastructure projects and leadership style, launched his reform drive after he was elected in late 2015.
He has sacked thousands of civil servants over the past two years in a crackdown on government inefficiency and corruption.
He has purged more than 20,000 “ghost workers” from the public service payroll and sacked 12,000 government employees for forging their academic transcripts.
“I will continue to straighten out those few people who have been looting this country in order to ensure that the majority of the population can reap the benefits,” he said.
Magufuli has won praise from some Western donors for cracking down on corruption and tax evasion.
