Government-by-Government Assessments: Tanzania
During the review period, the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report available online. It did not publish a full executive budget proposal. Some information on debt obligations was available online, but information on state-owned enterprise debt was not available. Publicly available budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams. Only limited information on allocations to and earnings from state owned enterprises and natural resource revenues was available. The intelligence budget was not part of the public budget, and there were no procedures in place to permit parliamentary review of it. Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget, and the government did not produce and publicly issue revised budget estimates or pass a supplementary budget. The supreme audit institution reviewed the government’s accounts and made its reports publicly available within a reasonable period of time but lacked independence that met international standards. The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law and regulation, but not followed in practice. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was not publicly available. Tanzania’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- making its executive budget proposal widely and easily accessible to the general public;
- including allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises in budget documents;
- publishing revised or supplementary budgets as needed;
- subjecting intelligence budgets to greater civilian oversight and audit;
- ensuring actual revenues and expenditures reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget, and producing and publicly issuing revised budget estimates or passing a supplementary budget when they do not;
- ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence;
- following natural resource extraction laws and regulations in practice; and
- publishing basic information on natural resource extraction awards.