A government audit report has revealed massive over-expenditure and poor advance planning in an airport project near former president John Magufuli's hometown of Chato in northern Tanzania.

This has further raised fresh questions over the commercial viability of the airport and several other projects that the deceased leader had initiated.

According to findings by Controller and Auditor-General (CAG) Charles Kichere, Tsh52.32 billion ($22.65 million) was spent on the Geita (formerly Chato) International Airport project in the five financial years between 2015/2016 and 2020/2021, which is about three times its initial budget of Tsh17.79 billion ($7.7 million).

The airport, which reports indicate is 90 percent complete and already fully operational but still grossly underused, was also built without a prior feasibility study to establish its long-term commercial viability, Mr Kichere said.

Located relatively close to the more established Mwanza Airport and with a runway capable of receiving big aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, it is one of several legacy projects that the former president pushed forward aggressively despite cautionary advice from experts.

August House

One of the big setbacks to public appreciation of the project has been that it was never approved by parliament as required by law, and expenditure related to its implementation has remained a mystery even in the August House.

Mr Kichere said an inspection of documentation by the Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads) as project overseers showed that at least Tsh3.62 billion ($1.56 million) was borrowed from other approved projects to help support the airport project on the understanding that the Treasury would later refund the cash.

"However, during my July 2021 audit, I discovered that none of the borrowed funds had been returned to the specified projects, which means that those projects have not been able to stick to their initial plan," he said.

The projects that suffered as a result included expansion of national ICT system infrastructure and construction of Tanroads headquarters and the Arusha-Holili and Tarime-Mugumu roads. Initial payments to contractors for various other government projects also had to be put on hold.

Proper feasibility

"It was also discovered that Tanroads and the Tanzania Airports Authority did not conduct a proper feasibility study beforehand to establish the logic behind the Geita airport project, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, resource requirements and commercial sustainability," Mr Kichere said.

"It is my view that this negligence only increased the dangers of the government investing in a project of no productive value as well as the chances of cost rises which cannot be monitored and unplanned time extensions for project implementation," he added.

Misgivings over the project have been based mainly on its remote location, well away from the beaten path for air travellers in Tanzania. National carrier Air Tanzania currently flies to the airport twice a week and has continued to attest to the route's profitability, but specific figures remain difficult to get or independently verify.

The Chato airport was one of Magufuli's pet projects under an ambitious economic development programme for Tanzania that also included a cross-country Standard Gauge Railway, the 2,100MW Julius Nyerere hydroelectric dam in southern Tanzania, and an expensive revival programme for the ailing national carrier.

According to the report by CAG Kichere, the dam project designed to solve Tanzania's power problems, was only 48.02 percent complete instead of the envisaged 94.47 percent by the time of the July 2021 audit.

Reasons cited included the coronavirus pandemic, delays in design work and frequent flooding of the Rufiji River, on which the dam is located.

The Air Tanzania revival programme has also been hit by sustainability problems similar to the Chato airport project, the report said. By July 2021, it had cut its operating losses to Tsh36 billion ($15.58 million) from Tsh60 billion ($25.97 million) the previous year, but retained a Tsh306.7 billion ($132.77 million) debt four years into the programme.

According to a strategic and operational efficiency inspection of the airline carried out by the CAG's office, the government spent Tsh1.028 trillion ($445 million) to increase its fleet size from four to 11 between 2017 and 2021, and a further down payment of $258.7 million was also made late last year for five additional planes that have yet to arrive.

But Air Tanzania's two Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners posted a loss of Tsh23.6 billion ($10.21 million) in 2020/21 due to a low load factor as their international flights programme was beset by Covid-19 and other hurdles, the audit report said.

President Samia Suluhu in March issued a fresh pledge to ensure the completion of all pending key projects initiated by her predecessor, specifically the Chato Airport project.