The recently released 2016/17 Controller & Auditor General Report has revealed a number of challenges relating to effective financial accountability at the local level including under and over-disbursements, massive amounts of unspent funds by local government authorities, drop in revenue collections and ineffective use of spent monies.

It has been revealed that the sustainability of social accountability monitoring (SAM) as a tool and an approach would depend on how it is successfully entrenched within Tanzanian communities with gradual reduction of dependency on donor resources as an exit strategy. If SAM continued to be donor-driven, it would one day collapse, stakeholders at a recent learning event were told.

Policy Forum (PF) network is looking forward to framing its future efforts on Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) based on the lessons learned in the previous years of implementation in Tanzania.

Mafinga member of Parliament, Hon. Cosato Chumi, has called upon actors to collaborate in addressing challenges that are faced by Local Government Authorities (LGAs). Opening a training workshop on the roles and responsibilities of Councilors held on the 22nd to 26th November 2016, he said that the government cannot address all these challenges alone and it needs efforts from non-state actors such as civil society organisations (CSOs).

A call has been made by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) to strengthen its Ad hoc working group that was formed with the intention of collaborating with CSOs to promote good governance and accountability.

Policy Forum in collaboration with PSAM conducted a three days workshop aiming to develop a collective learning agenda on SAM by drawing from trainers experiences in training and applying the PSAM approach. The workshop was held on 22nd to 23rd September at Royal Village Hotel, Dodoma Tanzania.

Engaging with government officials during Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) interventions is key to harvesting good outcomes.This was emphasized by SAM practitioners during a five-day workshop organized by Policy Forum in collaboration with the Public ServiceAccountability Monitor (PSAM), Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) and ActionAid-Tanzania that took place in Dodoma on the 18th – 22ndof May 2015.

The Ileje District Commissioner has hailed the support extended by civil society organisations in her district and admitted her own work would have been more difficult in their absence. Rosemary Staki Senyamule acknowledged the work done by IRDO, MIICO, Restless Development and Policy Forum to name a few and advised government to see CSOs more than just faultfinders but partners in development.

Following the recent tabling and discussion of the Controller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on the Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) Tegeta Escrow Account (TEA) in parliament and the subsequent public outcry regarding revelations of unprecedented fraud, we, the undersigned Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)  wish to communicate our joint position on the controversy.

The Private sector in Tanzania has been urged to create incentives to promote ethical conduct in their businesses such as initiating reward schemes. The call was made by Joel Nanauka, a presenter at the debate when he was presenting on “What are the incentives for Tanzanian businesses to conduct their operations in an ethical manner?” during the Policy Forum breakfast debate slated 26th September 2014.