Dar es Salaam — The Parliamentary Public Investment Committee yesterday censured the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) over Sh38 billion expenditure on administrative and operational costs instead of allocating more funds to development projects.
Members of the Parliamentary watchdog were concerned after reading from the 2013/2014 annual performance report of the TCRA showing that the latter had spent half of its income on administrative expenses.
According to chairperson of the committee, Ms Lolensia Bukwimba (Busanda-CCM), the report indicates that out of the Sh79 billion that the TCRA collected as revenue, Sh18 billion was spent on training, seminars, trips and publicity, and operarional expenses accounted for Sh20 billion.
"Being oversight committee on investments, we consider this an unduly huge amount that we urge the authority to reduce and channel more money to projects for the benefit of majority Tanzanians," she said when her committee met the authority's top officials.
Sikonge MP Joseph Kakunda remarked: "Are you comfortable with these priorities? Why don't you direct more resources to development projects?"
The TCRA's board chairman, Prof Haji Semboja, said given the nature of its operarations, the authority was compelled to spend much money on building capacity of its staff, because technology was always dynamic.
"We we need to be ahead in technology, and as such, regular courses and seminars are necessary for imparting new knowledge to our staff as new technologies emerge, This is the reason behind much money being spent on administrative and operational costs," said Prof Semboja.
Chief Executive Officer of TCRA, Dr Ally Simba, said the authority could not focus more on investing in project because it was not established for conducting business.
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