election held on October 25.
During this period, President Magufuli has earned both local and foreign admiration for his firm stand on austerity and impatience with corruption and waste of public funds. His predecessor, former President Jakaya Kikwete had even dubbed him ‘Bulldozer’, due to his superb performance as Works Minister.
Many people had expected Dr Magufuli to take a short break after the campaign trail, which lasted for over 60 days, as he traversed the country seeking votes. He had always insisted on travelling on road, save for a few occasions when he used an aeroplane.
Surprisingly, the former secondary school Mathematics and Chemistry teacher and industrial chemist-turned politician, swung into action on his second day in office and made a surprise visit to the Ministry of Finance, adjacent to the State House, on foot!
On his fourth day at the State House, President Magufuli made yet another impromptu stopover at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) where he was dismayed with poor services, patients sleeping on the floor and lacking medicine, which were however available on private pharmacies just outside the hospital.
He was equally angered when informed that major diagnostic machines; the Computerized Tomography Scan (CT-Scan) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), had been out of service for over two months while nothing had been done to get them working again.
The then Acting Director General of MNH, Dr Hussein Kidanto, became the first public servant to face the wrath of the no-nonsense president. He was immediately relieved of the position and transferred to the Ministry of Health while the hospital’s Board was dissolved.
The purge on wasteful spending was next on his agenda. He was categorical in his inaugural speech of the Eleventh Parliament that he would not tolerate public officials with savour of crisscrossing continents to attend meetings, trainings and all sorts of irrelevant conferences.
Dr Magufuli there and then banned all such trips by public servants, insisting that only he or the Chief Secretary will issue permits in case such excursion was of national interest. Tanzanian envoys in foreign countries were instructed to represent the country at functions.
During a dinner prepared by the National Assembly that evening in the designated capital of Dodoma, Dr Magufuli stunned lawmakers and other guests when he revealed how he had directed the office of the parliament to cut down the planned budget of the feast from 251m/- to just 25m/-. The president instructed that the saving should be used to buy beds at Muhimbili.
As a result, the MNH was able to purchase 300 beds, 300 mattresses, 30 wheel chairs as well as 30 stretchers and 1,695 bed-sheets. As if that was not enough, Dr Magufuli continued with his shockers after cancelling the traditional independence celebrations, which are marked on December 9, each year, with pomp and pageantry to honour the day when Tanzania gained her freedom from Britain on December 9, 1961.
He called for a nationwide cleaning campaign on the Independence Day to alleviate filthy-borne diseases such as cholera, a call which was positively received by the public who willingly participated on the drive across the country.
Through Chief Secretary Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, the Head of State recommended instead that funds allocated for the celebrations should be channelled to other development projects, and this happened as the funds, totalling 4bn/- is now being used to expand the stretch of road between Morocco area and Mwenge in Dar es Salaam.
By January, this year, Dr Magufuli had allocated 137bn/- to provide free education while revenues have shot-up from about 900bn/- to 1.5tri/- per month. At this time, Magufuli had three closeaides namely Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and Chief Secretary Sefue.
Following in the footsteps of his boss, Premier Majaliwa made a surprise visit at the Dar es Salaam port where he unveiled disgusting tax evasion by some scrupulous importers who were said to be colluding with officials of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA). Going through cargo manifest, the PM discovered that 349 containers had been cleared out of the port and inland container depots (ICDs) without paying requisite taxes.
He thus suspended a number of officials including the Commissioner for Customs, Tiagi Masamaki. On the same day, President Magufuli suspended the TRA Commissioner General, Rished Bade, whom he replaced with Dr Philip Mpango who was then the Executive Secretary of the Planning Commission.
Dr Mpango, however, served in the post briefly as he was nominated an MP and appointed Minister for Finance and Planning. Since then, a number of highranking officials have faced the wrath of the new administration which has declared zero tolerance on corruption, embezzlement and incompetence.
They include former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Dr Shaaban Mwinjaka. Dr Mwinjaka was striped-off from the position after it came to light that a total of 13bn/- in Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) was spent dubiously.
The PS was put aside pending investigations. More still, President Magufuli dissolved the TPA Board of Directors and fired Director General Awadh Massawe, following a number of irregularities unveiled at the port.
Premier Majaliwa on his part suspended several other employees at the port. Additional 15 employees of TPA were suspended later after it was found out that 11,884 containers had ‘vanished’ from the port causing a loss of 43bn/- to the government.
President Magufuli did not end there, he sacked the then Director General of Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Dr Edward Hosea and promoted his Deputy Valentino Mlowola to act in the position.
The Head of State as well suspended four senior officials of the anti- corruption watchdog for travelling outside the country without required permission.
The Director General of Reli Assets Holding Corporation (RAHCO), Mr Bernard Tito, was also put on hold to pave the way for investigations on questionable procurement process for a contractor to implement the standard gauge railway network. The RAHCO Board of Directors was not spared too as Dr Magufuli dissolved it.
Credit: The Daily News