Political party funding in Tanzania has come under a cloud after an audit revealed that more than Tsh67 billion ($47.8 million) allocated to the country’s parties over four years could not be accounted for.

The audit, conducted by the National Audit Office (NAO) following a request last year by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), revealed that none of the nine political parties that received taxpayers’ money in the form of subsidies kept proper financial records.

The audit, which is still under way, has also established that some of the political parties do not have bank accounts, raising the possibility that state funds could have been channelled through personal accounts.

“Eleven out of 21 political parties with permanent registration did not submit their annual financial statements as required by Section 14(1)(i) of the Political Parties Act No.5 of 1992,” noted Controller and Auditor General Ludovick Utouh.

In addition, the submitted financial statements have differing accounting basis and financial reporting frameworks.

“The format and accounting period of the political parties are different and do not disclose pertinent information about the basis of preparation of the financial statements; accounting policies and notes to the financial statements were missing, hence limiting the audit’s scope,” he added.

PAC chairman Zitto Kabwe described the audit as a milestone in enhancing accountability in Tanzania.

None of the political parties was willing to discuss the audit findings.

Speaking to The EastAfrican after the CAG published the partial audit report, Mr Zitto said political financing was the largest single driver of large-scale corruption.

“In Tanzania, we have had a situation where money stolen from the central bank through the EPA account possibly funded a party during elections,” he said.

He noted that the genesis of the PAC request to have the political parties audited is the infamous External Payment Arrears (EPA) account scandal, with records showing that billions of shillings were siphoned out of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) shortly before the 2005 General Election and used to finance political activities.

“It has taken four years for the audit to be implemented, with a lot of political drama. But it has been done and we have shown the region that fighting corruption must start with political institutions. A foundation has been built for cleaner politics,” he said.

He urged the NAO to continue with the audits to ensure politicians did not use their position and power to access and spend public money given to their parties.

Records show that in four financial years (from 2009/10 to 2012/13) the government provided a total of Tsh67.7 billion ($47.8 million) as subsidies to political parties, grants that were not audited.

Unaccounted for billions

None of the parties that received the money presented their accounts for audit to the CAG, nor did they later present the audited accounts to the Registrar of Political Parties as required by law.