The Office of the Controller and Auditor General of Tanzania

The Office of the Controller and Auditor General of Tanzania.

The Office of the Controller and Auditor General of Tanzania (C.A.G) is an apparatus established under Article 143(1) of the constitution and given powers under Article 143(2) to ensure that the use of any money proposed to be paid out of consolidated fund has been authorized and ensure that the authorized funds be paid in accordance to conditions for withdrawal of moneys from consolidated fund as per Article 136 of the constitution. Also, CAG is given duty to ensure that all the money the payment of which has been authorized to be charged on the consolidated fund and to ensure the money are spent on the purpose intended. Lastly, the Constitution under Article 143(2) grant powers to CAG to audit all the public accounts of the United Republic, the accounts managed by all officers of the government of United Republic, the accounts of all courts of the United Republic and the accounts managed by the clerk of the National Assembly.

Article 143(4) of the Constitution requires that, after auditing is completed, CAG must submit to President the audit report for further actions. A President after receiving audit report, he may direct a responsible person for that purpose to submit the report at the first sitting of National Assembly which shall be held after the President has received the report. If the President does not take such step to submit the report to the National Assembly, the Controller and Auditor General will take step to submit the audit report to the Speaker or Deputy Speaker (if the office of Speaker is vacant) and such audit report will be submitted before sittings of National Assembly for discussion. In discharging his duties, the Controller and Auditor General is not obliged to comply with orders from any person or government department, only the court of law is given powers to enquire into whether the CAG has discharged his functions in accordance with the provisions of the constitution or not. The auditing activities intend to check the expenditures of public funds, to ensure proper authorization has been given prior utilization of public monies and to discover misuse and to take proper action to the people or institutions involved in misusing government funds.

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[1] Ibid